scholarly journals How did we get here? A brief history of competency-based higher education in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.R. Nodine
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Competency Based

Book Review: The Shaping of American Higher Education

NASPA Journal ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary H. Knock
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early History ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Broad Understanding

In the introduction of this book, Arthur Cohen states that The Shaping of American Higher Education is less a history than a synthesis. While accurate, this depiction in no way detracts from the value of the book. This work synthesizes the first three centuries of development of high-er education in the United States. A number of books detail the early history of the American collegiate system; however, this book also pro-vides an up-to-date account of developments and context for under-standing the transformation of American higher education in the last quarter century. A broad understanding of the book’s subtitle, Emergence and Growth of the Contemporary System, is truly realized by the reader.

Weaving Innovative Threads Together

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-35
Author(s):  
Judee Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Competency Based Education ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
Specific Performance ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
The University

In the United States, institutions of higher education have been under mounting pressure to improve. In part, this is due to increasingly high-priced academies producing graduates who possess skill levels that are out of sync with employer and societal needs. Added to this is the fact that the United States spends more than other countries to educate its citizens but continues to perform more poorly on comparative measures of literacy, math, reading, and science. To stay globally competitive, changes need to be made. Competency-based education has re-emerged and taken root as one way in which to educate students more effectively. By focusing on demonstrable learning outcomes and discipline-specific performance, competency-based education is changing the fabric of higher education. Based upon experiences garnered from the University of Wisconsin Flexible Option, this chapter presents some of the challenges encountered when developing this type of program within a longstanding traditional educational system.

Deliberation and University Governance

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-150
Author(s):  
Richard M. Locke
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
University Governance ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Full Participation ◽  
Brown University ◽  
History Of ◽  
Collective Deliberation ◽  
Participation In Higher Education

In the United States, historical oppression and discrimination have barred certain groups based on their gender, race, religion, sexuality, and socioeconomic class from full participation in higher education. While there has been a long history of protest and pressure to diversify, progress has been mixed. After a recent wave of protests at Brown University, Richard M. Locke faced the task of developing a realistic and coherent university plan for addressing concerns and demands. Implementing insights from Joshua Cohen’s work on deliberation, Locke led a process that resulted in one of the most ambitious university diversity and inclusion action plans in the country. In this chapter, Locke describes the process undertaken and seeks to generalize from the experience at Brown to argue that collective deliberation can be an effective model for how universities can address an array of complex issues faced today.

Broad Access and Steep Stratification in the First Mass System: High Participation Higher Education in the United States of America

2018 ◽  
pp. 227-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Cantwell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
System Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Present Condition ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education System ◽  
High Participation ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of

This chapter provides a detailed and extensive assessment of the United States of America’s (USA) high participation systems (HPS) of higher education. It considers the history of higher education, system development, and the present condition of higher education in the country. The USA was the first HPS and the American system remains globally influential. Higher education in the USA is a massive enterprise, defined by both excellent and dubious providers, broad inclusion, and steep inequality. The chapter further examines higher education in the USA in light of the seventeen HPS propositions. Perhaps more so than any other system, the American HPS conforms to the propositions. Notably, higher education in the USA is both more diverse horizontally, and stratified vertically, than most other HPS.

Presbyterians and Higher Education

2019 ◽  
pp. 567-580
Author(s):  
David S. Guthrie ◽  
R. Tyler Derreth
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Freedom Of Thought

This chapter explores Presbyterian influences and involvement in higher education. It begins by using Princeton as an historic lens to examine the “Presbyterian ideals” of reason and education, liberty, and differentiation. The Presbyterian regard for freedom of thought and intellectual edification produced denominational schools throughout the history of higher education, especially in the United States, that differed substantially in their overarching philosophies, approaches to learning, curricula, and emphases on Christian piety. The second part of the chapter identifies the proliferating diversity at the intersection of Presbyterianism and the higher education landscape in the twentieth century. It describes differentiation by theology, denominations, geography, and culture. The chapter ends with brief ruminations on the future roles and stability of Presbyterian higher education.

Important Events in the Development of Academic Advising in the United States

2009 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Cook
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Academic Advising ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
Faculty Roles ◽  
Student Personnel ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Millennium

The development of academic advising parallels the history of higher education and reflects decades of student personnel work. Changes in funding, curricula, students, and faculty roles have all affected the means by which students have been advised. The evolution of advising eventually led to the formation of NACADA in 1979. Since 2001, when I last documented the history of academic advising in the Mentor, I have expanded the benchmark information and references. I also added key advising events in the new millennium.

Western Governors University and Competency-Based Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 2346-2352
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regional Accreditation ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Governors University ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Educational Paradigm ◽  
The University ◽  
Short Time

Western Governors University (WGU) was formally established in 1996 by the governors of 19 western states. From its inception it was committed to delivering all of its programs through distance technologies and to graduating its students only on the basis of their demonstrated competency. It is today the only regionally accredited university in the United States to award its degrees exclusively on this basis. Developing the university and proving its viability, however, have not been easy. The enthusiasm surrounding its launching in 1996 rapidly gave way to the hard realities of establishing a new educational paradigm. Within five years, after accreditation seemed slow in coming and enrollments in the new university even slower, many in the higher education establishment wrote WGU off as a failed experiment. Some even breathed a sigh of relief that the claims of competencybased education could be written off. But eight years after its formal incorporation, WGU is very much alive. It has received national accreditation from the Distance Education and Training Council (2001) and unprecedented regional accreditation by four of the nation’s regional accrediting associations.1 No other institution in the history of American higher education has received multi-regional accreditation, and given the complexities of such reviews, WGU achieved that milestone in a remarkably short time. By January 2005 the university had an enrollment just over 3,200 students and was growing by more than 200 students a month.

History of Correspondence Instruction

2011 ◽  
pp. 1006-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary A. Berg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Military Service ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computer Based Learning ◽  
Geographical Separation ◽  
Religious Convictions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Computer Based ◽  
The 19Th Century

In a general sense, the origin of computer-based learning methods as they have developed internationally derived from correspondence instruction. In the United States, certain problems drove the development of alternative forms of higher education such as correspondence instruction at the end of the 19th century, including geographical separation from sources of higher education, demands of work and military service, lack of access for women, minorities, and the handicapped, religious convictions, and limitations of the curriculum.

A Brief History of Competency-Based Learning in the United States

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
CUNNINGHAM JENNIFER ◽  
AQUINO CARLOS TASSO E. DE ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
History Of ◽  
Competency Based
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