News

Press Release

New York, NY (June 23, 2008) - Today, the Teagle Foundation announced 30 new grants totaling over $3.5 million to fund projects involving more than 45 colleges, universities and other institutions in higher education. Fifteen of the grants aim to develop models for advancing student engagement and learning through processes of systematic improvement.

"These grants recognize that liberal arts colleges are poised and ready to develop ways of systematically improving undergraduate learning and engagement," said W. Robert Connor, President of the Teagle Foundation. "We were impressed by the rigor of the work proposed; these projects will produce data and best practices that will be useful to many other colleges, even as they respect and respond to the individual cultures of the campuses that undertake them."

Outcomes and Assessment Grants - Teagle Awards for Systematic Improvements in Student Learning

The Foundation's Outcomes and Assessment initiative is based on the belief that nothing has more potential to affect students' educational experiences than programs that build on the information gained through appropriate and systematic assessment of what they learn. The Teagle Awards for Systematic Improvements in Student Learning were developed to assist liberal arts colleges in cultivating exemplary and imaginative programs that advance the way students learn in the classroom.

College of Saint Benedict / Saint John's University -- $149,667
"Systematic Assessment: Building Capacity and Closing the Loop"

Earlham College -- $149,577
"Creating and Implementing On-going General Education Learning Goal Assessment"

Hampshire College, Bard College, Bennington College, Colorado College, New College of Florida, Smith College and Wellesley College -- $145,544
"Assessing the Senior Thesis to Improve Teaching and Learning"

Hobart & William Smith Colleges -- $150,000
"Reshaping Faculty Culture: Evidence-Based Transformation in Student Learning"

Hope College -- $148,560
"Systematic Improvements of Student Learning" (focused on the development of students' writing skills, curiosity and openness to new ideas)

Juniata College -- $149,500
"Systematic Improvement in Student Learning via the Establishment of a Cost-Effective Scholarship of Teaching Learning Center"

Kalamazoo College -- $150,000
"Transforming Kalamazoo College through Multi-layered and Systematic Improvement of Student Learning"

Middlebury College -- $143,800
"Assessing Student Progression: Writing in the Disciplines"

Occidental College -- $150,000
"Academic Support Assessment Project (ASAP)"

Randolph-Macon College -- $25,000
"Systematic Improvements in Student Learning" (planning grant)

Skidmore College -- $150,000
"Writing in the Majors: Increasing Student Engagement through Writing"

St. Lawrence University -- $150,000
"Developing a Process Model for Systematically Assessing and Improving Liberal Education: The St. Lawrence University Diversity Requirement as Case Study"

St. Olaf College, Carleton College and Macalester College -- $150,000
"CALL and Response: Small-scale Innovations Informing Large-scale Improvements in Student Learning"

Trinity College -- $25,000
"Faculty Driven Learning Assessment at Trinity College" (planning grant)

Whittier College -- $150,000
"Systematic Improvement in Student Learning" (development of a new assessment data management model)

Other grants in Outcomes and Assessment

Lawrence University, College of Wooster, and Williams College -- $94,700
"Researching Assessment Methods in Tutorial Education"

University of Southern California (USC) -- $299,912
"Assessing the Impact of Diversity Courses on Students' Higher Order Thinking Skills"

Wellesley College, Bates College, Bowdoin College, Colby College, Middlebury College, Smith College, Trinity College and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges -- $196,000
"To Continue the Work of the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning"

Fresh Thinking Grants - Teagle Awards for Collegia on Student Learning

Teagle's Fresh Thinking initiative encourages sustained analysis of ideas and issues that can help strengthen and define the goals of liberal education. Seven new projects for the Collegia on Student Learning will explore how recent developments in cognitive psychology and assessment can be used to improve student learning.

Brown University, Connecticut College, Rhode Island School of Design, and Wellesley College -- $112,344
"Using Cognitive Principles to Enhance Graduate and Undergraduate Learning in Independent Research Projects"

Columbia University -- $149,990
"Collegium on Student Learning" (a collaboration of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Teachers' College, and the University's Medical Center to prepare future faculty through "Science and Scholarship of Learning Seminars")

Indiana University -- $150,000
"Collegium on Inquiry in Action" (preparing future faculty for teaching with emphasis on "learning theory" and "recent developments in the learning sciences.")

Rice University and the University of Texas Medical School -- $149,997
"Collegia on Student Learning" (improving student learning through research on memory and retention)

Tufts University -- $149,844
"A Teachers' Collegium to Design, Implement, Evaluate, and Revise Teaching Innovations to Improve Student Learning"

University of Michigan -- $149,600
"Distinctions, Intersections, and Collaborations: An Interdisciplinary Collegium on Applying the Science of Learning"

Yale University and Haskins Laboratories -- $149,991
"Collegium on Student Learning" (a multi-disciplinary study of reading difficulties among late adolescents)

College-Community Connections Grants

Teagle's College-Community Connections program supports partnerships between community-based organizations in New York City and area colleges and universities. These partnerships enable the development of academic programming for young people to better help them prepare for college.

New York University, to partner with Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America -- $25,000

East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP), for college preparatory programming -- $40,000

Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House, for college preparatory programming -- $15,000

Overcoming Obstacles / Community for Education Foundation, for college preparatory programming -- $15,000

Project Reach Youth (PRY), for college preparatory programming -- $15,000

Please visit www.teaglefoundation.org to read detailed descriptions for these projects as well as for more information on the Foundation and all its programs.

About the Teagle Foundation
The Teagle Foundation is committed to providing intellectual and financial leadership in the effort to promote and strengthen liberal education.

Contact information:

Teagle Contact:
Donna Heiland
212-373-1972