Talent developers rather than talent identifiers

Values
Written By David Arendale

Astin, A. W. (1999, Spring). Rethinking academic "excellence". Liberal Education, 7-18. As institutions seek to compete with one another for higher rankins and ratings by external groups (i.e., U.S. News & World Report), the author argues for a different paradigm for evaluating institutional quality and impact.
Dr. Astin, former director of the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA, argues that more resources should be invested in improving the learning systems at colleges. Rather than measuring the quality of student freshmen, the focus should be on the value-added experience of the college and the degree to which it has been a "talent developer" of the students. This provides useful language in describing the current and future role of developmental education and learning assistance programs.

David Arendale

At the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, David Arendale served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction with the University of Minnesota and Manager for the Educational Opportunity Association Best Practices Clearinghouse. While he became an emeritus faculty member in May 2019, he continues his writing, research, public service, and public speaking. Arendale is devoting more time to use of social media such as websites, YouTube channels, podcasting, and Twitter to communicate in addition to publishing in print and on-line open access journals

http://arendale.org
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