Overview

What is Foundations of Excellence^®?

Now more than ever in challenging economic times, your campus needs a strategic action plan for the critical beginning college experience. Foundations of Excellence^® will yield a new vision for enhanced learning and retention of first-year and transfer students as well as priorities for resource allocation. Foundations of Excellence is a comprehensive, externally guided self-study and improvement process for the first year. New for 2009 is the expanded capacity of the self-study process to include a focus on transfer students. The centerpiece of Foundations of Excellence is a model comprised of a set of principles that are termed Foundational Dimensions ® . These Dimensions, developed by the Policy Center on the First Year of College and vetted by over 300 four- and two-year institutions, guide measurement of institutional efforts and provide an aspirational model for the entirety of the beginning college experience (initial contact with students through admissions, orientation, and all curricular and co-curricular experiences). These Dimensions also provide an intellectual foundation for the entirety of the undergraduate experience.

The engine of The Foundations of Excellence process is a campus-based task force - a group with broad representation from across the campus. The work of the task force begins with a campus audit of the first year for new and transfer students (the " Current Practices Inventory ") and continues with a nine- to twelve-month process of evaluation using the Foundational Dimensions and related performance indicators (P.I.'s), and culminates in the development of a strategic action plan for campus improvement. Institutions that participate in the Foundations of Excellence process will have access to a wide array of services and support.   Click here to learn what participants receive.

The Foundations of Excellence process is the signature work of the Policy Center on the First Year of College. The Center, founded in October 1999, has enjoyed the support of the following philanthropies for the development of its work: The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Atlantic Philanthropies, Lumina Foundation for Education, USA Funds, and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

Highlights of the Foundations of Excellence Process

Foundations of Excellence is a process that...

provides highly cost effective advisory support led by the nation's foremost experts on the first year

revitalizes a campus's approach to the first year for both first-time and transfer students

moves the retention conversation to a more intentional focus on educational quality

is the "what's next" for many campuses that have already made significant efforts to improve the beginning college experience

links academic and student affairs in a collegial process

moves away from a piecemeal, silo approach to the first year toward an intentional coherent approach

eliminates costly duplication of programs and efforts

sets priorities for allocation of precious resources and personnel

rewards collaboration over competition

provides a visionary blueprint you can use to acquire new sources of external support

is grounded in more than three decades of reform and research conducted by its principals

engages faculty, in addition to other constituent groups, in first-year reform efforts by focusing on high-risk courses

involves institutional research / assessment professionals

extends beyond unit-level assessment to institution-wide assessment

utilizes qualitative assessment supported by quantitative data and external support

can be integrated with accreditation-related assessment measures

results in a plan for change leading to significant improvement in the first year of college and the transfer student experience

Why Should Your Campus Consider Participating in Foundations of Excellence?

Over the past 25 years, the importance of the first year of college has been acknowledged to some degree by a wide range of American colleges and universities. Yet the result has often been the creation of an array of program-level initiatives, many of which operate on the margins of the first year and have only limited impact on students. Such efforts, although well intentioned and staffed by dedicated professionals, have existed in the absence of a structured model of excellence that goes beyond a single program to a broader vision of a campus's comprehensive approach to the first year. The transfer component of Foundations of Excellence is designed to help institutions evaluate the ways they facilitate the experience of this important, but often neglected, student cohort. By conducting a systematic self study under the guidance of the Policy Center on the First Year of College, your campus will take a candid look at its strengths and weaknesses and, based upon its findings, develop a strategic action plan that can lead to enhanced student learning and persistence. Although such a self study is, in itself, no panacea, it is an invigorating, institution-wide experience that brings together multiple constituent viewpoints and can lead to substantive institutional change and improved student outcomes.

What the Foundations of Excellence Process Adds to Existing Models of First-Year Assessment

The campus environment--how an institution structures the new student experience--plays an important role in determining how students spend their time, how they engage in learning, and whether they decide to return for the second year or even the next term. Yet campus assessment often focuses primarily on student characteristics rather than the institution's policies, practices, and procedures. The Foundations of Excellence process adds an essential component to a careful analysis of the first year by enabling institutions to conduct a thorough examination of their environments and to connect findings to student-level input and outcomes data. By focusing on what they control, institutions can take immediate steps to build on their strengths and improve their weaknesses. As a comprehensive process, Foundations of Excellence goes beyond limited analysis of discrete components of the first year; instead it acknowledges the interconnected nature of the many components of the student experience. Most fundamentally, the Foundations of Excellence process is assessment of institutional behaviors, policies, and practices.

Does Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year Link with Student Learning Outcomes?

Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year is a self study that leads institutions to be more accountable for student learning through a) the identification of common learning goals for the first year, and (b) the auditing of learning outcomes across first-year courses. The process is not prescriptive. It does not provide specific goals for learning or measure specific learning outcomes. The core philosophy of the self study is that setting and monitoring learning goals is an important indicator of institutional excellence, and that there are many ways to accomplish this end.

Rather than directly testing students' knowledge and skills, the Foundations of Excellence surveys and processes present an aspirational vision of learning that requires a campus to evaluate its success in a) establishing desired learning outcomes, b) communicating these to students, families, and other stake holders, c) documenting student learning with multiple sources of evidence that may include quantitative and qualitative measures, and d) using results to confirm effective practices or make adjustments. A critical step in achieving an institution's larger goals for its graduates is developing benchmarks for student learning in the first year that guide institutional decisions and actions. The self study assures that institutions consider learning outcomes in a broader context of institutional improvement rather than narrowly focusing on the selection of a single test of academic knowledge.

Eligibility

Participation in Foundations of Excellence is open to any regionally accredited four- or two-year postsecondary institution in the US and comparable educational institutions in other countries.