ACUE Welcomes Under Secretary Ted Mitchell to Board Discussion on Effective College Instruction

Originally posted on ACUE’s Q Blog. 

The Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) held its Board of Advisors meeting last week in Washington, DC, and was joined by some special guests, including a top official at the U.S. Department of Education.

The meeting was hosted by ACE, whose landmark collaboration with ACUE includes co-endorsed Certificates in Effective College Instruction for faculty who complete ACUE’s comprehensive Course in Effective Teaching Practices. ACUE’s Board of Advisors is a coalition of leaders in higher education who helped found ACUE in 2014 and continue to advise and guide the mission. (A list of Board of Advisors members in attendance is below.)

The meeting kicked off with a lengthy discussion about changes facing higher education and the role that effective teaching can play to help colleges and universities meet new challenges. The discussion came less than two months after the collaboration between ACUE and ACE was announced, which also includes a joint commitment to dramatically expand the use of effective teaching practices in higher education.

“We know that good teaching maps to student success,” ACUE Chairman Matt Goldstein said during his opening remarks.

“ACUE offers the opportunity to deepen student learning and is well timed to positively impact higher education,” added ACE President Molly Corbett Broad.

Also participating in the meeting were Ted Mitchell, Under Secretary at the US Department of Education, and Genyne Boston, Associate Provost of Florida A&M University (FAMU), which piloted the ACUE Course this spring. Boston discussed FAMU’s three-week pilot this spring, which included 20 faculty participants. (Click here for more details about the FAMU pilot.)

Under Secretary Mitchell, who oversees higher education and postsecondary policies in his role at the Department of Education, was present during the opening discussion, titled “Moving Excellence in Instruction to the Heart of the Student Success Agenda.”

Dramatic changes to the student population and faculty workforce have underscored the importance of effective instruction, which Mitchell said was “at the core of the educational enterprise.”

“We need to start the conversation and keep the conversation going,” added Mitchell, who said that an important component of ACUE’s work would be to show that the program was improving student outcomes, such as retention and graduation rates. ACUE is building a robust research agenda into our faculty development programs at partner institutions.

List of attendees:*

• Matthew Goldstein, ACUE chairman and chancellor emeritus, City University of New York
• Molly Corbett Broad, president, ACE
• Ann Weaver Hart, president, University of Arizona
• Peter McPherson, president, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
• Barry Munitz, chancellor emeritus, California State University System
• Eduardo Padrón, president, Miami Dade College
• Kevin Reilly, president emeritus and Regent Professor, University of Wisconsin System
• Charles Rose, former general counsel, U.S. Department of Education
• Benno Schmidt, president emeritus, Yale University, and chairman, City University of New York
• Andy Stern, president emeritus, SEIU

* Associate Provost Genyne Boston attended on behalf of FAMU President Elmira Mangum.