A study was conducted by the Wyoming Community College Commission to describe the variables that affect students' progress toward their personal, academic and career objectives, and to evaluate their progress in reaching those objectives. The 5-year longitudinal study focused on a random sample of 181 students who were first-time, first-year…

The Six Performance Characteristics rating, An Alverno College assessment technique used in the outcome-centered liberal arts curriculum, is discussed. The technique provides a means for faculty to judge students in a systematic way over time on developmental characteristics that apply to their performance across disciplines and across competence…

High rates of failure in secondary level science classes are a problem worldwide. Effective teaching and efficient management of schools requires information as to the causes of failure. One approach to acquiring this information is to improve our understanding of what the students themselves perceive as the causes and antecedents of school…

A model was developed to relate home, school, and extracurricular experiences (from preschool through high school) to the reading achievement of high school seniors. Variables representing each of these factors were measured using "The Reading Biographer," an instrument that had been evaluated in a national follow-up study of 3,959 high…

The University of Phoenix has developed a comprehensive outcomes and impact assessment program to assess the effects of a university education on students, particularly adult students. The program is integrated with the existing process assessment systems. Process assessments, which the university refers to as the Academic Quality Management…

In 1985-86, LaGuardia Community College (LCC) completed the developmental phase of a project aimed at increasing the number of minority, low-income urban students who transfer from LCC and complete a baccalaureate degree. During the year, the program had the following achievements: (1) linkages were established with the City University of New York…

Issues concerning student moral and ethical development during college are considered in three papers from a symposium sponsored by Bowling Green State University as part of the Academic Outcomes Project. Four major questions are addressed: the college's role in promoting students' moral and ethical development; what constitutes moral and ethical…

A guide to support student success in extended orientation courses, freshman seminars, and study skills classes is presented, using exercises such as journal-keeping, stories of 12 people who have mastered specific skills, practical suggestions, and forms and charts. The major topics are: time management, memory, reading, note-taking, test-taking,…

Three outcomes of the college experience for black students in U.S. higher education (student academic achievement, student social integration into campus life, and student occupational aspirations) are discussed with a theoretical emphasis on connections between institutional and individual characteristics in the explanation of student outcomes.…

Recommendations to further the educational development of minority college students are addressed in an essay, and descriptions of college programs funded by the Minority Achievement Program (MAP) are presented. In "A National Study of Minorities: Some Implications for Undergraduate Education," Alexander W. Astin considers the…

The view of education as a liberating, enlightening, individuating process and educational approaches to support this goal are examined. According to Ivan Illich (1970), the social relations within the educational encounter have corresponded closely to the social relations of dominance, subordination, and motivation in the economic sphere. He…

The guidebook is designed to help school districts plan humanistic education programs. Humanistic education is defined as a commitment to education and practice in which the teaching/learning process emphasizes the individual's freedom, value, dignity, and integrity. Humanistic education aims to develop the learner's potentials, help students to…

An overview of the Far West Laboratory (FWL) version of Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) is presented to acquaint potential adopters with the distinctive features, key roles, learning procedures of the Far West model, and its adaptability to local needs. (Core areas of the FWL-EBCE in which all students are expected to progress are career…

An Orientation/Self-Management course was developed at Mercy College, Detroit, to reduce the high attrition rate (95%) among conditionally admitted full-time (CAFT) students, i.e., those admitted with less than a "C" average upon high school graduation. The course focused on the student as an adult, vital, growing, and independent person; the…

The personal, professional, and postgraduate educational development of graduates of six Michigan postsecondary institutions with programs that allow credit for experiential learning was examined. The two- and four-year programs also included a liberal-studies type curriculum, and experiential learning options included portfolio assessment,…