“Effective teaching is inclusive teaching,” said Penny MacCormack, ACUE’s Chief Academic Officer, in her opening remarks at Texas A&M University System’s (TAMUS) DEI Summit in early April. ACUE’s microcredential, Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning, was a central topic of discussion at the summit.

The session underscored TAMUS’ deepening investment in quality teaching systemwide through its Scaling Instructional Excellence for Student Success initiative, launched in 2020 alongside the National Association of System Heads (NASH). After a successful first year of partnership, TAMUS leaders announced a three-year continuation of its partnership with ACUE.

MacCormack and Carmen Macharaschwili, ACUE Academic Strategist, were joined by LaShondra Manning, Assistant Professor of Counseling at Tarleton State University, and Alvin Johnson, Director of Academic Advising at Prairie View A&M University who participated in a panel discussion. 

Manning and Johnson earned their ITEL microcredentials last semester, learning new practices for creating a more inclusive classroom. Meanwhile, Cindy Blackwell, ACUE Academic Director, shared insights from her experience overseeing the partnership.

Confronting our own biases

Manning and Johnson shared how through the ACUE program, they discovered new facets of themselves and their own teaching — not just insights about their students.

Manning, who said she had previously made assumptions about students’ knowledge, learned that she had to develop new ways to account for her own biases. She went on to explain that she had unconsciously expected students to be perfectionists like her, never realizing that her traditional educational background didn’t coincide. Through ACUE, she grew to understand how important it was to get to know students.

“ACUE shifted my perspective,” she said. “When I lifted my bias, that helped me connect better with my students. I needed to stop making assumptions.”

Johnson came to the ACUE program with a unique perspective. He and his team’s roles are to ensure they support teaching philosophies and strategies.

“We forget that our students come with so many gifts and tools,” he said. “I constantly remind students that they have power and agency.”

Coping with imposter phenomenon

Both Manning and Johnson underscored how prevalent imposter phenomenon, a feeling of not belonging in an academic setting, is in the classroom and beyond. 

“Imposter syndrome sets in quickly,” Johnson said. “We have to change the conversations and vocabulary because students start mimicking that.”

Manning agreed, adding that she has worked hard to build an environment that welcomes all student’s perspectives.

Blackwell noted that faculty and staff can encounter imposter phenomenon anywhere on campus. “No matter where you are, a campus is a learning environment,” she explained. She shared how she recently read a reflection from the admissions staff, who had a first-generation student struggling to fill out the FAFSA. 

“She didn’t feel like she belonged,” Blackwell said. “How many students feel that way?” This, she explained, is one of the reasons why all sectors of academic life should be equipped with inclusive teaching practices, from the residence halls to advising.

Microaggressions and inclusive teaching

Microaggressions were another important topic of conversation, one the Inclusive Teaching microcredential focuses on deeply.

“ACUE gave us permission to confront microaggressions,” said Manning, who noted that she had experienced them herself. The program, however, equipped her with the skills to talk to students about their experiences and use them as teachable moments. Now, she has taken strides to encourage other faculty to confront microaggressions, such as by preparing a statement for the faculty retreat and inviting students to talk about their experiences.

“There are people who use microaggressions and don’t know they’re wounding people,” Johnson said. “A lot of time students come to us because they don’t know how to address it with faculty. The problem comes with the power differential.”

Through ACUE, Johnson also realized that he was not immune to perpetuating these slights. “My blackness and queerness do not eliminate me from privilege,” he said.

Blackwell added that she has heard faculty say they had never heard the term “microaggression” but have experienced and seen them. “So many students don’t even know what they’re saying,” she said. “We’ve got to teach them [about microaggressions] in this environment so they don’t go out and perpetuate it in other environments.”

“These are difficult topics and conversations,” Johnson added. “My biggest takeaway is that for years I’ve avoided training that has to do with DEI [as a Black and gay man]. But I was also unintentionally replicating the harm that was done to me. I realized these are opportunities to learn, and ACUE has made this training approachable.”

To learn more about ACUE’s Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning microcredential and other programs, visit https://acue.org/programs/catalog/.

For Ryan McPherson, an associate professor of practice at the University of Texas at San Antonio, the ACUE course taught him a lot about what works in terms of teaching and learning. But it was learning about what doesn’t work, especially when it comes to studying, that resonated with him. 

“Things we know don’t work include cramming, studying marathons before a test, highlighting things, rereading things,” McPherson told his LinkedIn followers last year. He had recently completed ACUE’s 25-module course in effective teaching practices and earning a certificate in effective college instruction endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE). 

Five Studying Strategies to Help Students Learn More 

Equipping students with evidence-based studying skills are among the strategies that McPherson learned about and implemented as part of his ACUE course experience. Below, he writes about five studying strategies that educators can share with students to help them study smarter. (Adapted from McPherson’s instructional LinkedIn video.)

1. Quiz yourself: Instead of repeatedly reading over the same material, pre-quizzing is a studying technique that can enhance your retention of key concepts and information. It’s particularly useful before you engage in deeper studying techniques. 

2. Spaced practice: Spacing works the same way as high-intensity interval training. Rather than engaging in marathon studying sessions all at once, spacing out your studying into shorter but more focused sessions will improve your retention and retrieval of key information. 

3. Interleaving: Interleaving refers to the kinds of materials and types of problems you’re studying. Studying the same thing for a long time offers minimal benefits. But when you mix up the ways in which you study a related topic (flashcard games, writing tasks, or reading a textbook) and the types of problems (mixing lower and higher cognitively complex problems), you’re more likely to retain information. 

4. Teaching others: One of the best studying techniques is playing the role of the teacher. Having to prepare materials and present information to other people, in a team learning environment, forces the learner to think more deeply about what key lessons and concepts are most important to understand. 

5. Individual reflection: The act of intentional reflecting is an effective practice for surfacing consciousness and bringing greater awareness. Engaging in individual reflection before and after engaging in a learning experience activates brain systems that lead to higher grades. 

UT System and ACUE Partnership Equips Faculty with Evidence-based Teaching Practices

McPherson and two dozen colleagues were inaugural ACUE Teaching Fellows at UTSA, a program established as part of a student success initiative launched by the University of Texas (UT) System and ACUE. With support from Chancellor James Milliken, and led by Associate Vice Chancellor Rebecca Karoff, the UT System has helped eight UT academic institutions equip hundreds of faculty with evidence-based teaching practices.

At a ceremony last year, UTSA Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kimberly Andrews Espy celebrated UTSA’s first cohorts of ACUE Teaching Fellows for their resilience amidst a year of unprecedented challenges. 

“Your tremendous work is about more than personal development, cultivating new skills, or giving your courses an upgrade,” said Andrews Espy. “You completed this strenuous program, amid an already stressful year, because you care deeply about providing students with a high-quality and engaging education that prepares them to build bold futures.”

At UTSA, a nationally-recognized Hispanic Serving, Carnegie R1 university, ACUE is also part of the university’s strategies for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Through UTSA’s Academic Innovation division, ACUE’s microcredential course in Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning is among the year-round professional development programs offered — often at no cost and with financial incentives — to help faculty become more inclusive instructors and connect with peers outside their departments and colleges. 

ACUE Certified Faculty at Bennett College, an HBCU for women, Are Empowering the Next Generation of Women Leaders 

At Bennett College, a historically black liberal arts college (HBCU) for women, recognizing the crucial role of faculty in student success is a critical component of the institution’s new strategic direction. As the college’s leaders developed a blueprint for radical transformation over the past 18 months, they have increasingly focused on equipping faculty with evidence-based teaching practices shown to improve student engagement, close equity gaps, and increase persistence. 

A Micro College Mindset: ‘Our Smallness is Our Strength’ 

One of only two HBCUs for women in the nation, Bennett’s mission is to prepare women of color through a transformative liberal arts education. The college’s unique characteristics and small size—it serves just over 300 students—were defining factors in the institution’s search for a new accreditor, which culminated last year. 

Part of the process included hiring a new president to help guide the development of Bennett’s new strategic direction. That person was Suzanne Walsh, who joined the college in 2019 and immediately saw it as a fertile ground for innovation. 

In the immediate term, Bennett is embracing a ‘micro college’ model for students. From students’ first days on campus, when President Walsh meets with and greets each new student, to curriculum and extracurriculars, the school prides itself on designing and delivering highly-personalized, curated experiences to meet individual student needs. 

“Our smallness is our strength,” President Walsh likes to say, a mantra that the college has rallied around. 

At the core of Bennett College’s strategic priorities is the role of faculty in preparing the next generation of women leaders. Since Bennett launched a partnership with ACUE in 2020, three out of four full-time faculty have earned full Certificates in Effective College Instruction endorsed by the American Council on Education. The partnership has “brought excitement back to the classroom,” said Santiba Campbell, an associate professor of psychology and Faculty Senate President. 

ACUE is proud to work with dozens of HBCUs around the country. Last year, ACUE and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), with support from Bank of America, the Education Finance Institute, and the ECMC Foundation, announced a new national initiative that launched in the 2021-22 academic year. The “Excellence in Online Instruction” initiative will equip more than 660 faculty with evidence-based online teaching practices, ultimately reaching tens of thousands of students.

‘Empowered as a Black Woman to Speak for Myself.’

Current students and alumnae say that faculty have served as mentors and motivators. 

One student said that Dr. Campbell relentlessly pushed her and her peers to believe in themselves. 

“In her class, I felt empowered as a Black woman to speak for myself,” Breonna Martin, a student of Dr. Campbell, said in a video interview last year. “She would literally say to us, ‘Y’all got this.’ Even if you don’t think you do, she would say, ‘I think you do.’”

For Walsh, who joined the inaugural pinning ceremony for ACUE certified faculty last year, hearing directly from students is an important validation. 

“There is no better way to explain the value of the role of faculty in the lives of students than to hear it from a student,” she commented on LinkedIn last year. “[I’m] so incredibly thankful to our faculty who take students on these journeys with full support and encouragement.”

‘Describe What a Scientist Looks Like.’

Dr. Campbell’s disciplinary expertise is featured in ACUE’s effective online teaching practices courses and inclusive teaching for equitable learning microcredential. As a featured expert, Dr. Campbell addresses topics such as implicit bias, microaggressions and stereotype threat. In one video, she describes a discussion prompt in which students have to describe a scientist. Initially, she says, student responses tend to depict an old white man who vaguely resembles Albert Einstein. 

“The scientist image was always male, and they always gave me this crazy old guy description,” Campbell recalled. “So one of the things I decided to start doing in my class was to bring in female scientists from a range of disciplines and backgrounds. I wanted them to understand that research was conducted by a lot of different types of scientists. What better way to do that than bring in women who look like them to understand the process?”

‘Learning for the Future’

With Women’s History Month underway, Campbell said that Bennett College’s future plans are rooted in its legacy, which dates back to since 1926, of educating women of color. Campbell said that will continue to be a guiding force. 

But the ACUE partnership, Campbell said, is a nod to the fact that teaching methodologies have advanced in significant ways in recent decades. It is incumbent on Bennett College students and faculty to keep pace. 

“We all have to keep learning for the future,” Campbell said. “What ACUE did for us is reinvigorate an excitement for learning about teaching, while enhancing our pedagogy.” 

P3 Collaboratory at Rutgers University-Newark in action

Last week, our friends at AASCU convened 22 provosts for its prestigious Student Success Institute (SSI), a year-long leadership program led by Sova with support from Ascendium. ACUE was delighted to spend time with these leaders, share insights from years of partnership with AASCU-member Rutgers University-Newark (RU-N), and take provosts through a holistic approach to faculty engagement and evidence-based teaching, leading to student success and equity.

Dr. Sherri-Ann Butterfield, Executive Vice Chancellor, showcased the teaching and learning transformation well underway at RU-N. In 2014, with new leadership from nationally-recognized President Nancy Cantor, RU-N updated its strategic plan and put effective teaching at its core.  

Butterfield emphasized that students were instrumental to the process. “They helped us recognize that we weren’t just the most culturally diverse campus in the country, but that they have diverse learning styles, too.” Through conversations with colleagues, full- and part-time faculty, and students, the new plan was “organic and built from the ground up.” Butterfield added, “One of the clearest priorities was investing in our faculty to help strengthen their teaching.” 

The convened provosts were particularly interested in RU-N’s P3 Collaboratory, a result of the new strategic plan developed in partnership with ACUE. It brings together pedagogical development, professional and career development, and public-interest research (the “three p’s”) under one roof and, as Butterfield pointed out, shows that “research and teaching are not mutually exclusive.” It’s a timely reminder, given recently announced efforts to overhaul higher education’s hallowed R1 and R2 classifications.   

Some RU-N faculty were concerned if they’d truly be rewarded for investing in their instruction, given how little attention has been paid to teaching historically. So, RU-N built teaching into its reward structures. The result: a change of culture around tenure and promotion, with teaching portfolios getting greater consideration. Peer-recognition awards continue to matter, as does an annual ACUE pinning ceremony and reception for newly certified RU-N professors. “It matters to people,” Butterfield underscored.  

Evidence of change has also been key to sustaining momentum. In 2019, the Center for Advanced Study of Education at the CUNY Graduate Center examined the effects of evidence-based teaching at RU-N. Principal Investigator Dr. Deborah Hecht found that success and learning were stronger: among students taught by ACUE-certified faculty, 93% percent passed their courses, compared with 85% of students among comparison faculty; average grades also improved from 3.27 before instructors enrolled in ACUE coursework to 3.41 after instructors earned their certificate. 

Inspired by RU-N’s progress and Butterfield’s passion, AASCU’s provosts then rated their own institutional efforts. The exercise used a new toolkit, “Success & Equity through Quality Instruction: Bringing Faculty into the Student Success Movement,” developed by ACUE and Sova and published by the Education Commission of the States through Strong Start to Finish.  

With facilitation by ACUE’s Aaron Bolton, Petra Kohlmann, Penny MacCormack, Laurie Pendleton, and Jodi Robson, the provosts looked holistically across five key domains: their strategy, their focus on equity, the comprehensiveness of their approach, the extent to which the work is evaluated, and the intentionality of impact to campus culture—all through the lens of faculty, teaching, and learning. The toolkit’s practical suggestions left the provosts with ways to make progress at their institutions.

“Faculty are key to student success,” said Dr. Jonathan Gyurko, ACUE’s President and Co-founder, who led the session. Gyurko added, “We’ve seen that simply offering more professional development isn’t enough to transform a campus to see evidence-based instruction in every class as a key lever of stronger student achievement and equity.” Rather, “it takes the holistic approach that RU-N exemplifies, that the toolkit recommends, and that ACUE’s partnership, academic, research, and communications teams deliver.”   

Nor does the work end. “It’s a constant iterative process,” added Dr. Butterfield, who also thanked ACUE for its ongoing collaboration that continues to make an impact on student success and equity. 

A new two-year study from ACUE and The University of Southern Mississippi shows how investments in quality teaching lead to higher student retention, strengthen achievement, and narrow equity gaps.

Five years ago, The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) faced big challenges. In gateway courses, first-year students struggled to pass, and large gaps existed by race and Pell status. On top of that, USM academic leaders say, there lacked an instructional culture rooted in evidence-based teaching and student success. 

In response, USM launched the ACUE Faculty Development Institute to equip faculty with evidence-based teaching practices and build a community centered on student success. 

“The consequence of this faculty development initiative was really the beginning of a sea change on campus around teaching and learning,” Dr. Amy Chasteen, USM’s Executive Vice Provost of Academic Affairs said at a press conference to announce new research findings showing that investments in quality teaching lead to higher student retention. Over the last several years, more than 200 faculty have participated in the ACUE Faculty Development Institute. One out of every four full-time faculty is now ACUE Certified. 

‘Quality teaching is leading to increased retention.’

Research by USM and ACUE tells a data-driven story behind that faculty transformation and the impacts seen for students: higher retention and stronger, more equitable outcomes. According to an analysis of outcomes for 3,982 first-year students over two academic years (2017-18 and 2018-19), students taught by ACUE faculty were “significantly more likely to return to USM in the subsequent academic year” compared to students who took no courses taught by ACUE faculty.

The analysis, which included 32 ACUE faculty and 821 non-ACUE faculty, found an estimated additional 80 students returned to USM than would have otherwise.

“What we have found is that quality teaching is leading to increased retention of students and persistence at the institution,” Chasteen said. “We can imagine that with so many ACUE Certified faculty across the campus, there are likely hundreds more students being retained as a result of effective teaching.”

In presenting the research findings to date, Chasteen added that retention is only one benefit of USM’s investment in quality teaching. “We’re seeing stronger achievement, and we’re also seeing sustained improvement over time. DFW rates are lower in subsequent courses for students who took gateway courses with ACUE-credentialed faculty.”

More ACUE Faculty, Stronger Achievement

“We also are seeing an effect of multiple ACUE instructors on student success,” Chasteen said. “The more classes students take with ACUE-certified faculty, the higher the GPA, the greater the course completion, and the higher the pass rates. Again, the impacts are larger for our students of color. So, it’s very important to us, given our equity mission.”

As the most diverse university in the state of Mississippi, USM has made quality teaching a critical strategy for closing equity gaps. USM Provost Dr. Steven Moser said that investing in faculty has led directly to more USM students persisting and graduating, adding that this progress is “the result of a very deliberate, institution-wide investment through our ACUE Faculty Development Institute.” 

A Data-Driven Partnership

The results are the latest findings from a series of longitudinal studies conducted by USM and ACUE researchers. Studies published in summer 2021 will be presented in two sessions at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).

“From the start of our partnership, we have worked closely with ACUE to lead high-quality, large-scale research because we wanted to measure the impact of what we were doing,” Chasteen said.

“USM’s institutional commitment to being data-driven has made this collaborative work possible. Their commitment is exemplified in their dedication to measuring the impact of any and all of their initiatives that are designed to improve student outcomes and close those equity gaps,” said Meghan Snow, ACUE’s chief data officer, who was joined by ACUE senior research associate Dr. Theo Pippins, the lead author of the report.

Broader Implications for Student Success

The USM findings prompted a series of responses from higher ed leaders, who praised the student success outcomes and discussed implications for the future of the student success movement. 

Dr. Yolanda Watson Spiva, president of Complete College America (CCA), a leader of the higher ed reform movement, commended USM’s leadership “in surfacing important data focused on faculty impact on postsecondary student success.” 

“These retention findings on first-year students are an indication of the student-focused, student-first attitudes of ACUE faculty, combined with sound knowledge of the disciplines and quality teaching methods,” she said. “We are proud of ACUE’s work and share their dedication to creating more equitable student outcomes by eliminating institutional performance gaps through structural reforms of faculty teaching and learning.”  

For Scott Durand, CEO of ACUE, the analysis is another strong validation of ACUE’s mission to ensure student success and equity through quality instruction.

“The evidence is clear: ACUE Certified faculty retain more students, measurably improve achievement, and close equity gaps,” said Durand. “This new finding is a powerful example of how when colleges and universities invest in their faculty and equip them with evidence-based practices, they can tackle the enrollment and completion crises head-on and drive real student success outcomes.”

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education (ACE), praised the USM retention rate findings and said they underscored ACE and ACUE’s shared mission.

“Effective teaching matters. It is gratifying to see ACUE’s work with the University of Southern Mississippi produce such positive results toward strengthening student learning and persistence.”

Watch the press briefing.