An all-star team of researchers at ACUE is responsible for working with partner institutions to conduct large-scale studies to evaluate the impact of ACUE’s courses on faculty and students at partner institutions. To date, ACUE has published 18 studies that have established an incontrovertible link between the evidence-based teaching of ACUE-credentialed faculty and improved grades, higher completion rates, and closed equity gaps by race, ethnicity, and socio-economic status. 

The team’s data-driven work is one of the reasons that ACUE is now leading a major national study to examine student success outcomes in gateway courses, an initiative made possible through a $1.5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

One of the researchers on this talented team is Theo Pippins, who recently earned his PhD. His degree, in the Economics of Education, is from one of the most prestigious programs of such study in the United States–Teachers College, Columbia University. His dissertation examined important issues of equity in education among Black adolescents. This year he’ll be presenting two papers at AERA this year. 

We asked Theo to share some insights about his research and work at ACUE. 

Tell us about your dissertation. What topic did you study and what did you learn?

My dissertation focused on the potential for policies, interventions, and curricula to improve transitions to four-year colleges and universities in the U.S.  I conducted a novel investigation of New York City’s adoption of SAT School Day (SSD), which provides universal access to college entrance exams for high school juniors. In addition, I published a systematic review and meta-analysis of 19 studies on the causal impact of late pre-college advising interventions, which aim to connect juniors and seniors with pre-college advisors to guide them through the complex college application process. The studies focused on identifying the causal effect of these interventions on postsecondary enrollment outcomes for historically underrepresented students. Finally, I present a correlational study that uses transcript data from a statewide community college system to estimate how well GPA, credit accumulation, and course taking at community college predict upward transfer and baccalaureate completion.

Taken together, this work highlights the importance of academic preparation and advising within transitional pathways.

What is one big thing you want people to know about the ACUE research team’s work?

The biggest thing I want people to know about the ACUE research team’s work is that it is conducted by a genuinely dedicated group of individuals. Our work is simply a reflection of that dedication. We approach our work with thoughtfulness and are consistently trying to improve upon it. This is one reason why we have been successful at being accepted at conferences like AERA.

What does the ACUE’s role in leading a national study on student success in gateway courses mean to you? 

The Gates grant presents a great opportunity to further ACUE’s reach and demonstrable impact. I am just excited to be collaborating with faculty, administrators, and researchers who are dedicated to creating more equitable educational experiences. I cannot wait to dig into the data, learn from the findings, and share the story.

Learn more about the ACUE Impact

College students are struggling to persist through their “gateway” courses. A new $1.5 million study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will examine faculty impact on student success and equity through evidence-based teaching.

Last summer, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation asked to learn more about the link between evidence-based teaching and improved student outcomes in college.

What followed was an exhaustive review of the ACUE impact, which included numerous and independently validated studies showing that students earn better grades and complete courses in greater numbers – more equitably with their peers—when taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty.

“We took them on a deep dive,” said Scott Durand, ACUE’s Chief Executive Officer. “It was our honor to share compelling findings that ACUE-credentialed faculty close equity gaps and measurably improve student outcomes.”

The $1.5 million grant will support a major national study involving more than 1,500 educators nationwide to examine the relationship between evidence-based teaching practices, faculty mindset, and student outcomes. As part of this, up to 700 faculty will have the opportunity to earn the full ACUE Certificate in Effective College Instruction, endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE).

A Shared Mission: Evidence-based Strategies to Improve Student Outcomes

To dramatically improve student outcomes and ensure that race, ethnicity, and income are not predictors of postsecondary success, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation put students at the center of its philanthropic strategies. A guiding principle for the world’s largest charitable foundation is that evidence is essential for guiding improvement in student outcomes.

Durand said that ACUE’s evidence-based mission and shared commitment to measurably demonstrating impact has made the announcement even more meaningful.

“This major national study was granted on that basis, to further explore the transformative impact faculty can have on student success when equipped with evidence-based teaching practices and digital tools,” Durand added.

The study is being designed to expand higher education’s understanding of how Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and Pell-eligible students enrolled in gateway courses can benefit from evidence-based teaching. Participating institutions include:

• Borough of Manhattan Community College, City University of New York
• California State University, Northridge
• Georgia Southern University
• Ivy Tech Community College
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
• Ohio Association of Community Colleges, including Cincinnati State, Cuyahoga Community College, and Lorain County Community College
• University of Hawai’i at Manoa
• University of Houston

Passing gateway courses, which are required to earn college degrees, is pivotal to a student’s academic success. Yet too often it is where students encounter early challenges and struggle to persist.

Meghan Snow, ACUE’s Chief Data Officer, said that the study will have a specific focus on examining the link between evidence-based teaching and improved grades, higher completion rates, and closed equity gaps in gateway courses.

“With this new study, we can investigate these relationships in gateway courses—which are so consequential in a student’s academic career,” Snow said in a press release announcing the study.

Learn more: Review our 18 research briefs and partner impact stories showcasing how ACUE Certified faculty are making a measurable impact at colleges and universities nationwide.

By Amy Sliwinski

The “C’s get degrees!” mindset is a nod to a less cheery truth about students’ perceptions of college grading practices: A 70% is good enough. A traditional teaching approach might be to provide the grade along with some written feedback. Then it’s on to the next topic. But instructors know that the grade represents a clear gap in understanding. If it doesn’t get addressed, it will likely lead to greater challenges later in the course and stifle persistence.

How can we ensure students persist? 

Offering students opportunities to learn from their mistakes and improve their work has been one of the most impactful strategies I learned about while earning a Certificate of Effective College Instruction from the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). In the module on Helping Students Persist in Their Studies, we learned how to provide thorough, timely, and specific feedback, and offer more revision opportunities.

A coworker in my ACUE cohort shared his approach to offering revision opportunities. Students in his classes have an opportunity to resubmit assignments for up to 50% credit of any lost points. I was struck by the brilliance and simplicity of this practice. It provides students a clear opportunity to learn from and improve on their mistakes. Just as importantly, it supports a culture in which effort is more praised than ability.

Connecting to Career Skills

I also appreciate the intentionality of the module’s recommendations for showing students how assignments connect to career skills.

As a former academic advisor and director of an Atlanta-based internship program, I have seen firsthand how the power of support, encouragement, and the opportunity to learn from mistakes can change a student’s trajectory. The struggling student stereotype assumes “laziness” as a characteristic. More often, I found that fear, insecurity, lack of understanding or lack of belief in their own abilities hindered students. Instructors who normalize mistakes help students to keep moving forward and to see their own potential.

Providing Targeted Feedback

In online teaching, student engagement is a challenge. Interaction is often limited to writing, so it can be a mystery whether or not students are even reading your feedback. In-person interaction can also help provide a sense of support and encouragement. Without it, students may get discouraged when they lose points or have trouble understanding content. ACUE inspired me to be very intentional and transparent with my feedback to avoid this kind of confusion. Here are some feedback practices that I now incorporate:

• First, highlight what the student did correctly or point out at least one thing to celebrate in the submission.
• Explain specifically what resulted in point deductions.
• As often as possible, comment on some element of the assignment’s content, like posing a thought-provoking question.
• Provide resources or suggestions for revisions and improvements.

For example, if they had formatting issues, I might direct them to our online library portal for a Word document template in an appropriate format. I also, as often as possible, comment on some element of the assignment’s content and try to provide a thought-provoking question in response.

In my weekly announcements to the class, I also try to include some personal shout-outs with mentions of content from student submissions.

For example, I’ll highlight a student’s insightful comment on a key concept from the previous week. Or I’ll provide additional thoughts and resources on a particularly popular discussion post. I always try to use student names as a way to show them I am actually reading their work, which can help motivate them to put more care and effort into their assignments.

A ‘great vehicle’ for motivating students

Students may prefer different settings to discuss their work, so I also offer 1:1 opportunities and group Zoom sessions to offer a classroom-esque context.

In the second week of a course, I send a personalized “check-in” email to each student to ask if they have any questions, needs, comments or concerns about the course so far. This has become a great vehicle for interaction and connection and has helped struggling students become motivated to work to catch up in the class.

Many students say it’s made a big difference. It has become a trend for students to comment on how appreciative they are of my intentionality, my personalization, and the depth and detail of my feedback. I have also had a handful of students that have reached out to further discuss class concepts or even personal matters for fun as a result of the intentional efforts I make at connection. As ACUE highlighted, encouraging students and creating opportunities for them to learn from their mistakes has truly resulted in increased engagement, persistence, and student success.

Amy Sliwinski is the Academic Operations Coordinator and an ACUE-credentialed adjunct professor of Human Diversity and Leadership courses at Southeastern University, a private Christian liberal arts university in Lakeland, Florida.

“When I think about how our country can become more equitable, it’s the work you do,” said Dr. Penny MacCormack, Chief Academic Officer at ACUE, at the San Jacinto College Assembly in her keynote address to hundreds of educators. “Every interaction you have with students is important.” 

In fall 2021, 82 San Jacinto College instructors and staff participated in ACUE’s program, successfully completing a microcredential in Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning (ITEL). Among them: their Chancellor, Brenda Hellyer. 

“It was a very powerful experience,” Dr. Hellyer said. “I wanted to understand more about myself and how I can be a better leader.” In the self-reflection exercises, in particular, she found a greater level of empathy for her students, while also recognizing her own privilege. “It helped me dig a lot deeper.” 

As Dr. MacCormack explained in her keynote, ITEL is designed to provide educators and non-instructional staff with proven strategies to create a more equitable and just learning environment. Modules focus on implicit bias, microaggressions, stereotype threat and imposter phenomenon as well as creating an inclusive learning environment and designing equity-centered courses. It includes expert insights, demonstrations of practices in authentic settings, testimonials from faculty who have used the practices and seen their impact on students firsthand, as well as Observe and Analyze videos to prompt conversations between cohort members who are learning alongside their colleagues. 

ITEL’s design coincides with SJC’s mission to serve its diverse populations by providing access to quality education that advances the success of students from all socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.​ Guided by the question, “How does this affect equity and opportunity for our students and our community?” San Jacinto College has not only embraced ACUE’s ITEL course, but is now preparing to equip more instructors with effective teaching practices presented in ACUE’s additional course offerings. 

“There’s a myth that you’re either born with the characteristics to be an effective teacher or you’re not,” Dr. MacCormack noted. “That’s damaging to faculty and students,” adding that “in order for students to succeed — and feel a sense of belonging in college, which is critical to their perseverance — they must be engaged with quality-based instruction. And faculty, in turn, must be equipped with the tools to engage students in learning.”  

With 40 years of research and learning science informing it, Dr. MacCormack said, the ACUE framework encourages instructors to engage students at deeper levels, and ultimately narrow and close equity gaps. 

In a panel following Dr. MacCormack’s presentation, educators spoke about their experience completing the course and implementing new practices in their classrooms.  

Tammi Rice, a Math professor, spoke about experiencing imposter phenomenon and how completing the program led her to have more compassion for both her students and herself. “I went in with the goal of being better for my students but also for myself,” she said. “I think I’m much more complimentary than I ever had been. Now I have more robust insight into who my students are.” She added, “the course solidified the direction I was going in. I had solid research to go back to and didn’t feel so alone.” 

“We want to feel like we’re part of a community,” Crystal Higgs, a Biology professor, agreed. “When we express [our vulnerability] to our students, it helps them feel engaged and closer to us. Don’t be afraid of sharing your fears.” 

Now, Higgs uses a more intention-based method of instructing her students. During group work, for example, she assigns groups with an eye on the different skill sets students have, thanks to the lessons she learned from ACUE. 

“The most important element was the self-reflection for me,” Robert Flynn, an English professor, said. “I come from a position of privilege in this society. While there was a casual understanding of that, the reflection enabled me to increase my own level of self-awareness.” 

The ACUE program, he explained, helped him “reflect on how other people learn from me. That’s going to live the longest for me with this course.” 

Learn more about ACUE’s microcredential course Inclusive Teaching for Equitable Learning. 

An ACUE-certified course designer at Cal State LA shares two keys to success for scaling student-centered teaching strategies.

In any given academic year, there could be upwards of 1,000 students taking the quantitative reasoning courses in the Charter College of Education at Cal State LA. Deborah Oh has a pretty good idea of how each of them is performing at various points during the semester. She knows who’s passing, missing classes, or falling behind on assignments. Equipped with data and evidence-based practices for student-centered course design, Oh and her colleagues get to work.

It’s halfway through the semester, which is one of three checkpoints when instructors update a master Google spreadsheet managed by Oh. She says this data becomes a powerful signal for how to tailor instruction in the second half of the semester. Each semester, there are dozens of students in “the passing zone.” These are students who are making progress but at risk of not passing. Some need gentle reminders about their missed assignments. For others, personal outreach and targeted intervention from faculty can reignite a student’s motivation.

“We jokingly talk about how we are chasing after them, but we’re showing that we care for them and we want them to succeed in our classes,” said Oh.

Since 2018, when Cal State LA launched a comprehensive plan for redesigning its quantitative reasoning courses, Oh says that pass rates in these gateway courses have increased from 79% to 85%. In one summer session, 94% of students passed the course, officially called Early Start Math (ESM) 1090. For a course that typically enrolls upwards of 1,000 students each year in EDFN 1090/1092, the pass-rate improvement equates to hundreds of more students passing these critical courses.

Looking back on her experience with Cal State LA’s successful course redesign, Oh says that building capacity through a core team of instructional rock stars has been a key to success.

Faculty Lead CSU System Reforms

Faculty across the California State University System (CSU) have played a key role in recent strategic initiatives to increase student retention, completion, and graduation. Most recently, faculty have been crucial levers in response to Executive Order 1110, which required the end of remedial math across CSU by fall 2018.

“The efforts are being led by faculty because they are the ones who best understand that [remediation] is not good for students,” said Alison Wrynn the system’s associate vice chancellor for academic programs, innovations, and faculty development. Under Wrynn and Director Emily Magruder, The CSU Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) has seen its mission and scale expand dramatically in recent years. As part of the CSU’s Graduation Initiative 2025, the CSU Institute played a central role in helping campuses redesign entry-level mathematics and writing courses to eliminate pre-requisite remediation.

Cal State LA sprang into action and quickly took a leading role in the remedial education reform. They started with an overhaul of the math curriculum, establishing math pathways that shared common syllabi and assessments. Materials were normed and made more student-centered. students have access to co-requisite “just-in-time support.”

But what Cal State LA believes distinguishes its efforts is an investment in faculty. Oh was one of nearly 60 faculty who received extensive support from their nationally-recognized Center for Effective Teaching and Learning in partnership with ACUE. After Oh earned ACUE’s full certificate in effective college instruction, she co-facilitated the ACUE courses and continues to redesign statistics courses.

“ACUE is all over my course design,” says Oh. “Every assignment has a purpose, and it’s always plugged into the course topic and connected to the course learning outcomes. Guided notes, grading rubrics: Those are all ACUE techniques.”

Cal State LA’s approach has drawn praise for its intentional and strategic approach to incorporating faculty development into student success strategies.

“Cal State LA has been really successful in this work,” said Emily Magruder, who directs the CSU Institute for Teaching and Learning. “They actually incorporated, at scale, parts of the ACUE course, to prepare their math instructors in that preparatory year before implementation.”

In recent years, Oh has focused on building instructional capacity and now works with a team of five ACUE-certified faculty on course redesign.

“Having a team of core instructors who care about the success of their students, who can put our heads together on a consistent basis to look at the data and make informed decisions — that is really, really important.”

ACUE is proud to celebrate the remarkable achievements of four institutional partners that earned the nation’s signature recognition for America’s community colleges this year.

The Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence, awarded every two years, is a national recognition from the Aspen Institute awarded for institutions’ commitment to student success and equitable student outcomes. The prize, as President Obama once called it, is “basically the Oscars for great community colleges.” 

Four ACUE partners were recognized by the Aspen Institute in 2021 as part of the prestigious selection process – including the top winner, San Antonio College. Other finalists were Broward College, Borough of Manhattan Community College, and Tallahassee Community College.  

ACUE has been honored to partner with several finalists and prize winners over the years. In 2019, ACUE partners Indian River State College and Miami Dade College, were named co-winners.  

ACUE Celebrates Aspen Prize Award Winners and Finalists

Earlier this year, we had a chance to speak with presidents, provosts, and faculty from the Aspen award-winners and finalists. In interviews, they reflected on their partnerships with ACUE and the role that faculty and quality instruction has played in their success.

Community College Excellence in Action 

The community college finalists were “especially well-equipped” to address even the most unimaginable challenges, including those presented by the pandemic. As the Aspen Institute put it in their 2021 report , these institutions were well prepared “because of the student-centered work they’d been diligently doing for years.” 

Broward College: Faculty at the Center of Student Success 

Broward College, for example, revamped its budget system to require resources to be supported by evidence on how they’ll contribute to improved student success outcomes. In ACUE, they found a perfect fit. 

A “key investment in student success is training new faculty in an evidence-based model of effective online pedagogy, provided by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE). An independent study found that the outcomes gap between Black and white students was halved for those in courses taught by ACUE-certified instructors, while the gap for students from low-income backgrounds was eliminated.”

“Our students were more likely to complete and pass their courses when taught by ACUE-credentialed faculty,” said Broward College President Gregory Haile. “Notably, greater outcomes were found for Black and low-income students. These results have helped us confirm the value of addressing equity issues among our students and the difference we can make in student outcomes when faculty have access to the right tools and the right practices.” 

San Antonio College: Equitable Teaching Practices 

At San Antonio College, a data-driven culture extends to the classroom. Faculty review student success data, broken down by student characteristics such as race and ethnicity. Faculty professional development is focused on inclusive teaching practices that advance equitable student outcomes, with the ACUE partnership serving as a key program. 

“Our partnership with ACUE has led to faculty success,” said Sobia Khan, dean for academic success at San Antonio College. “Each and every faculty member who went through that first ACUE cohort has really changed the way they teach. It’s become transformational.”

“It’s important that in our pursuit for excellence at San Antonio College, we bring in the best partners in the country and we believe ACUE is one of our best partners,” added Robert Vela, president of San Antonio College.

Tallahassee Community College: Aspen “tells you what. ACUE gave us the how.”

At Tallahassee Community College, significant resources have been devoted to training faculty members in instructional effectiveness and course redesign. In addition, the faculty senate and leadership convened in 2019 for a workshop focused on equitably advancing a student-centered environment. That event paved the way for the development of a Teaching and Learning Framework and led to a growing partnership with ACUE.  

“Aspen is very clear in their structure about what they want institutions to demonstrate that they are in fact excellent,” said Tallahassee Community College President Jim Murdagh.  “[Aspen] tells you what. ACUE gave us the how. We’ve seen tremendous improvements in the success rates of students in gateway courses at our college.”

Borough of Manhattan Community College

At the Borough of Manhattan Community College, a school in the City University of New York (CUNY) system,  Aspen noted BMCC’s focus on career readiness of its students. Leaders said the role of faculty is critical to any and all student success strategies.

“We try to do everything in our power, both inside and outside of the classroom, to have our students succeed, to persist, to be retained, to graduate,” said Erwin  Wong, BMCC provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “Preparing faculty to teach online through ACUE was instrumental in terms of helping our students to continue to move forward.”

 “The equity gap is of paramount importance to us, and we believe that the ACUE experience has allowed us to really crystallize and reinforce the initiative,” said Anthony Munroe, president of BMCC. 

We applaud our community college partners championing student success! And, we are proud to play a key role in their achievements. 

By Cindy Blackwell 

As one of three people working at my institution’s faculty development center in March 2020, I appreciated the kudos from Cahn, Stellar and Brooks in their recent Inside Higher Ed article Don’t Blame the Technology. We worked around the clock to develop training webinars and create resources to help faculty who had never or rarely taught online. It was exhausting yet also heartwarming to see what some faculty were doing to ensure their students continued to get the education they planned from the start of the semester.    

“Online education departments and teaching and learning centers scrambled to support thousands of instructors in a monumental effort to sustain the continuity of education across the country,” the authors wrote. “Those departments and centers deserve a tremendous amount of credit for enabling faculty members and students to continue their courses during an unprecedented upheaval to the status quo.”  

The recognition is nice. But as the authors note, for all of the resilience, hard work, and great stories on display during the pandemic, we know that too many students have not received the education that they deserve. One only needs to look at the spate of class action and individual lawsuits filed by unsatisfied students to see that the quality of instruction is not where it needs to be to deliver high-quality learning experiences.  

The issue of students frustrated by ill-equipped and unprepared faculty is not a new or unique problem in higher education. For decades, if not longer, subpar college teaching has been an elephant in the room. The pandemic merely put a bright spotlight on it. 

As Cahn, Stellar and Brooks write, “this pandemic-induced emergency was avoidable.” In The Amateur Hour, Jonathan Zimmerman shows that poor teaching is a century-long theme in higher education, in which “most students insisted that they had learned in spite of the instruction they received, not because of it” (p. 24).  

One of the questions raised by Cahn, Stellar and Brooks is, what now? What needs to change to ensure faculty are prepared to teach effectively online and in-person? The authors offer worthy recommendations, such as requiring graduate students to study teaching and learning, beefing up onboarding programs, and investing in ongoing high-quality professional development.  

In my role as an academic director for the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), our team has the privilege of seeing these recommendations in action through working with our institutional partners.     

One of those partners is the Texas A&M University System, which partnered with ACUE after being awarded one of four grants offered by a collaboration between ACUE, the National Association of System Heads and the Charles Koch Foundation. The grant-supported endeavor was so successful across the Texas A&M University System that the System extended and expanded the partnership for three more years through the Instructional Excellence for Student Success Project. This initiative is to encourage excellence in teaching at the eleven Texas A&M University System schools. After just one year the ACUE and Texas A&M University System partnership assisted two nursing faculty at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi in making much needed changes to the Doctor of Nursing Practice program.  

Another example is the ACUE Faculty Development Institute at The University of Southern Mississippi, where I was an associate director in the Center for Faculty Development. This professional learning community has created a space for hundreds of faculty to gather, learn from each other, and improve their instructional practice.    

Strategy, culture, and approach, are just a few of the domains established in Success & Equity Through Quality Instruction, a toolkit published collaboratively by Strong Start to Finish, ACUE, and SOVA. The toolkit provides core principles, practical resources, and rubrics for how colleges and universities fully engage faculty in the student success movement. It includes dozens of recommendations for policies and strategies for institutions to consider if they are serious about preparing and supporting faculty to be effective in the classroom.   

As a faculty member, I was lucky enough to be in a doctorate program that emphasized teacher preparation. As a new faculty member, my dean stressed the importance of quality teaching and provided professional resources for use to develop. And most recently, I was able to earn ACUE’s Certificate in Effective College Instruction.  

I am grateful to have had these opportunities in my own teaching career. I was proud to have played a small role in helping faculty at Southern Mississippi successfully transition to online courses at the start of the pandemic. At ACUE, I am inspired every day in the work I do with our institutional partners that are working to ensure every student has access to effective instructors. That is what it’s going to take to move the needle on student success. It won’t be enough until good teaching is systematically developed and rewarded for what it is – the foundation of every institution of higher education.  

Dr. Cindy Blackwell is an Academic Director at ACUE.