Education and the Development of Knowledge

Projects in the Education and the Development of Knowledge program area inform policy and practice in support of high-quality, lifetime educational opportunities for all Americans. The program area continues the Academy’s enduring focus on the vital role education and knowledge development play in our nation and in our world. From advancing equitable educational outcomes to leveraging new developments in the learning sciences and digital technologies to questioning how domestic and international scholarly work may be affected by advances in machine learning, the Education and the Development of Knowledge program area – through commissions, projects, convenings, and publications – draws upon scholars and practitioners from various fields and disciplines to explore the conditions that foster the creation, transfer, and preservation of knowledge in a global context.

 

Program Advisory Committee

CHAIR

Michael McPherson
formerly, Spencer Foundation


MEMBERS

Deborah Loewenberg Ball
University of Michigan

Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee

Howard Gardner
Harvard Graduate School of Education

David L. Lee
Clarity Partners, LP

Richard Light
Harvard Graduate School of Education

Kathleen McCartney
Smith College

Paula D. McClain
Duke University

Joseph Neubauer
formerly, Aramark Corporation

Nancy Peretsman
Allen and Company

Paul Sagan
Akamai Technologies

Morton Schapiro
Northwestern University

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of California, Los Angeles

Beverly Daniel Tatum
Spelman College

 

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PROJECT 

Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education

The Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education is a multiyear initiative charged with examining the current state of American undergraduate education, projecting the nation’s short-term and long-term educational needs, and offering recommendations to strengthen all aspects of undergraduate education. The Commission – whose members include leaders from higher education, philanthropy, business, and government – reviewed the research and data; met with students and faculty members, experts, and state and federal policy-makers; and produced a data-based primer on the student journey through college, four in-depth research papers, and a comprehensive final report. The key idea emerging from this body of work is that what was once a challenge of quantity in American undergraduate education, of enrolling as many students as possible, is increasingly a challenge of educational quality–of making sure that all students receive the education they need to succeed, that they are able to complete the studies they begin, and that they can do all this affordably. The Commission is engaging in a range of outreach activities through June 2020 to make its work as widely read as possible and to advance its recommendations around quality, completion, and affordability.

COMMISSION CHAIRS

Roger Ferguson, Jr.
TIAA

Michael McPherson
formerly, Spencer Foundation


COMMISSION MEMBERS

Joseph E. Aoun
Northeastern University

Deborah Loewenberg Ball
University of Michigan

Sandy Baum
Urban Institute

Rebecca M. Blank
University of Wisconsin-Madison

John Seely Brown
formerly, Xerox PARC Research

Wesley G. Bush
Northrop Grumman

Carl A. Cohn
California Collaborative for Educational Excellence

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.
Purdue University

John J. DeGioia
Georgetown University

Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Robert Hormats
Kissinger Associates; formerly, U.S. Department of State

Freeman A. Hrabowski III
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Jennifer L. Jennings
New York University

Jeremy Johnson
Andela

Sherry Lansing
Sherry Lansing Foundation

Nicholas Lemann
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

J. Michael Locke
formerly, Rasmussen, Inc.

Monica Lozano
College Futures Foundation

Gail O. Mellow
LaGuardia Community College

Diana Natalicio
University of Texas at El Paso

Hilary Pennington
Ford Foundation

Beverly Daniel Tatum
Spelman College

Shirley M. Tilghman
Princeton University

Michelle Weise
Strada Education Network


DATA ADVISORY GROUP MEMBERS

Thomas Bailey
Teachers College, Columbia University

Sandy Baum
Urban Institute

Ronald G. Ehrenberg
Cornell University

Bridget Terry Long
Harvard Graduate School of Education

Judith Scott-Clayton
Teachers College, Columbia University


PROJECT STAFF

Francesca Purcell

Beth Niegelsky


FUNDERS

Carnegie Corporation of New York

TIAA Institute

 

Project Publications

 

A Primer on the College Student Journey
(American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2016)

Undergraduate Financial Aid in the United States
Judith Scott-Clayton (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)

The Complex Universe of Alternative Postsecondary Credentials and Pathways
Jessie Brown and Martin Kurzweil, Ithaka S+R (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)

The Economic Impact of Increasing College Completion
Sophia Koropeckyj, Chris Lafakis, and Adam Ozimek, Moody’s Analytics; Foreword by Michael S. McPherson (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)

Policies and Practices to Support Undergraduate Teaching Improvement
Aaron Pallas, Anna Neumann, and Corbin Campbell (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)

The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2017)

 

Project Meetings

 

Systemic Change in Undergraduate STEM Education

September 6, 2018
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Washington, D.C.

Program Director Francesca Purcell (American Academy of Arts and Sciences) participated in a panel discussion at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on System Change in Undergraduate stem Education. The discussion explored the various forces affecting and shaping higher education and its future and the implications of these changes specifically for undergraduate stem education.

 

Consortium on Financing Higher Education

October 17, 2018
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA

Commission Cochair Michael McPherson (formerly, Spencer Foundation) delivered a keynote address at the annual meeting of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education on the future of undergraduate education and the implications for colleges and universities in making good decisions in a constrained economic environment.

 

Minnesota’s Private Colleges: Implications from The Future of Undergraduate Education

October 31, 2018
Augsburg University
Minneapolis, MN

Commission Cochair Michael McPherson met with several presidents at the Minnesota Private College Council’s semi-annual meeting to provide an overview of the key themes from the Commission’s report, as well as engage in discussions focused on college affordability.

 

A Dialogue on the Future of Higher Education in America

November 27, 2018
Wachtel, Lipton, Rosen and Katz
New York, NY

Academy President Jonathan Fanton and Commission Cochairs Michael McPherson and Roger Ferguson, Jr. (TIAA) partnered with Academy member Martin Lipton (New York University Board of Trustees) and Kathryn Wylde (Partnership for New York City) to bring together over twenty board chairs and presidents from area colleges and universities. The key themes of the meeting focused on improving undergraduate teaching; examining the role of part-time faculty; increasing completion rates; addressing affordability; and expanding partnerships with business and industry.

 

Strengthening Undergraduate Teaching

December 5–6, 2018
House of the Academy
Cambridge, MA

Commission Cochair Michael McPherson and Pam Grossman (University of Pennsylvania) chaired a meeting that brought together dozens of researchers, practitioners, and institutional leaders to examine the current state of the research on and use of effective teaching practices; highlight individual and group efforts dedicated to this work; and consider how Academy members and other organizations can advance the widespread adoption of skillful college teaching.

 

Dædalus Authors’ Conference

December 6–7, 2018
House of the Academy
Cambridge, MA

Guest editors Michael McPherson (formerly, Spencer Foundation) and Sandy Baum (Urban Institute) convened the authors writing for the Dædalus issue on the undergraduate educational experience to discuss and provide feedback on their draft essays. The authors include scholars and experts from the fields of education, psychology, history, economics, political theory, and the natural sciences.

 

Texas A&M Board of Regents’ Committee on Academic and Student Affairs

January 16, 2019
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX

Sandy Baum spoke at the Texas A&M Board of Regents’ Committee on Academic and Student Affairs meeting about the Commission’s recommendations around college affordability, teaching, and completion as well as specific recommendations for higher education leaders.

 

Washington State Higher Education Leaders and Policy-Makers

February 20, 2019
Lord Mansion
Olympia, WA

Michael McPherson and Sandy Baum met with leaders from colleges and universities as well as with state policy-
makers, including the lieutenant governor and the governor’s senior education advisor, to discuss the three key recommendations from the Commission’s report: affordability, completion, and quality. The Academy collaborated on this meeting with the College Promise Coalition, the Washington Student Achievement Council, and the University of Washington.

 

University of Houston Future of Higher Education Conference

March 28, 2019
Hilton University of Houston
Houston, TX

Commission members Michael McPherson, Sandy Baum, and Michelle Weise (Strada Education Network) gave presentations related to the key findings of the Commission’s work. The several hundred participants at the conference included leaders from two- and four-year institutions as well as high schools, members of the business community and from philanthropic organizations, and policy-makers.

 

Maryland Higher Education Commission

April 25, 2019
Baltimore, MD

Commission member Sandy Baum delivered a keynote address at the Maryland Higher Education Commission’s biennial Maryland College Completion Summit. Her presentation featured data and findings from the Commission’s work as well as recommendations to help the state reach its goals of having at least 55 percent of Maryland’s adults, between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-four, earning at least an associate’s degree by the year 2025.

 

“I Have A Dream” Foundation

June 5, 2019
New York, NY

Program Director Francesca Purcell facilitated a discussion among the board members, senior staff, and affiliate executive directors of the “I Have A Dream” Foundation about the systemic barriers students from under-resourced communities face in getting to and through college, and how a postsecondary credential affects the lives of graduates. The conversation also explored how the Foundation can better support students in completing a quality postsecondary program for long-term professional and personal success. 

 

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Project in Development 

A Study on K-12 Education

The Academy is engaging in a series of sounding meetings to identify and refine areas of inquiry in K-12 education that would benefit from a multidisciplinary, evidence-based analysis. From fall 2018 to spring 2019 the Academy held nine sounding meetings across the country (in Chicago, Los Angeles, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Cambridge, Philadelphia, and Nashville), cohosted by a local member, that engaged more than a hundred individuals (including thirty-eight Academy members) in education research, administration, teaching, philanthropy, and business. Common themes discussed at the soundings include the challenges of scaling reform initiatives and achieving systemic change; issues of educational inequity associated with race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; the recruitment, training, and retention of high-quality teachers and school leaders; achieving universal literacy by the end of third grade; public perceptions of K-12 education; the nature, purpose, and delivery of K-12 curricula; and the need to address students’ challenges beyond the classroom.

FUNDERS

Louise Henry Bryson and John E. Bryson

David Rockefeller, Jr.

The Academy’s New Initiatives Fund

 

Sounding Meetings

 

Chicago

October 24, 2018
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Chicago, IL

HOST

Jonathan Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

 

Los Angeles

November 4, 2018
The Peninsula Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills, CA

HOSTS

Jonathan Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Louise Bryson
J. Paul Getty Trust

 

Palo Alto

November 7, 2018
Learning Policy Institute
Palo Alto, CA

HOSTS

Jonathan Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Linda Darling-Hammond
Stanford Graduate School of Education; Learning Policy Institute

 

San Francisco

November 8, 2018
S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation
San Francisco, CA

HOSTS

Jonathan Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Anthony Bryk
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

 

Seattle

November 9, 2018
Amazon
Seattle, WA

HOSTS

Jonathan Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Andy Jassy
Amazon Web Services

 

New York

January 17, 2019
The Wallace Foundation
New York, NY

HOSTS

David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Will Miller
The Wallace Foundation

 

Cambridge

March 6, 2019
House of the Academy
Cambridge, MA

HOST

David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

 

Philadelphia

March 28, 2019
Neubauer Family Foundation
Philadelphia, PA

HOSTS

David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Joseph Neubauer
formerly, Aramark Corporation

 

Nashville

May 20, 2019
Loews Vanderbilt Hotel
Nashville, TN

HOSTS

David Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee

 

Murfreesboro

May 21, 2019
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN

HOST

Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee