Educational Administration and Supervision Commons^™

Taking On The Challenges Of Diversity And Visibility: Thoughts From A Small Honors Program, Kathryn M. Macdonald

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The Monroe College Honors Program, located in New York, enjoys an extremely diverse student body, which can be attributed to its location within and proximity to New York City. Data about the Monroe College Honors Program are presented. More importantly, this essay presents the strategies that the honors program uses to meet the needs of a diverse student body. Our students face many challenges, including difficult family situations and economic hardship, and so the honors program has created a rigorous but flexible curriculum and co-curriculum to meet their needs. The approaches used to serve this population focus on getting to …

Shunning Complaint: A Call For Solutions From The Honors Community, Richard Badenhausen

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While members of the academy are particularly adept at complaining and poking holes in most proposals that cross their paths, we are less comfortable with offering solutions. This essay asks members of the honors community to consider some of the major challenges facing honors education today and propose solutions that might be adapted on a variety of campuses. Rather than asking respondents to take up rather straightforward issues that commonly face honors program and colleges, this piece urges readers to dig into more intractable problems like access, mental health, innovation, and the position of honors on campus.

No Complaints, Please: Just Time To Rethink Honors, Linda Frost

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This article responds to a lead essay by Richard Badenhausen posing current challenges to honors education and requesting solutions. Frost argues that the place of honors in our undergraduate curriculum needs to be rethought in part because general education core requirements are shrinking; accordingly, the NCHC Basic Characteristics noting honors viability by the number of honors credit hours a student takes need to be revised as well. As one of the few nimble academic units in the university, the honors program or college has been, is, and can continue to be a key site for innovation on our campuses.

Being Honors Worthy: Lessons In Supporting Transfer Students, Carolyn Thomas, Eddy A. Ruiz, Heidi Van Beek, J. David Furlow, Jennifer Sedell

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In the ever-growing discussion of how to build and support honors programs that reflect the diverse communities our institutions serve, the recruitment of transfer students has only recently been identified as a key avenue to enacting more equitable programs. Reflecting on four years of recruiting, enrolling, and graduating transfer students in the University Honors Program at the University of California, Davis, we push the conversation beyond how to welcome transfer students in honors to how to meaningfully support them. We present the initial findings of our ongoing self-assessment to stimulate discussion about the unique challenges and opportunities transfer students experience …

With Great Privilege Comes Great Responsibility, Anne Dotter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay contends that honors education should seize the opportunity to expose our students to the horrors of our society such as “the violence against those among us with the least amount of power.” We can affirm our curricular foundation (writing, reflection, and critical thinking) by supplementing it with histories of oppression in order to better equip our students with the tools necessary to become change agents. Such a shift in curricular content and pedagogies could engender changes in our institutional practices that model successful collaboration across races, cultures, and disciplines for our students, ultimately leading the way to a …

Understanding The Development Of Honors Students’ Connections With Faculty, Shannon R. Dean

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Nearly 40% of full-time students enrolled at four-year institutions depart within the first year. Previous research has shown college students are more likely to graduate if they have meaningful interactions with faculty. Honors students provide unique perspectives because of their high levels of interaction with faculty, yet not much is known about how these connections develop. The purpose of this study was to understand how honors students develop connections with faculty. Six upper-division students were interviewed, and participants reflected on meaningful connections made with faculty during their first year. Two themes were identified as influential in developing connections: approachability of …

Resisting Commodification In Honors Education, Jodi J. Meadows

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The commodification of education is an increasing threat to university honors programs. In honors, we seek to unpack this transactional model of education and uncover the inherent joy of learning. Honors professionals can challenge the commodification of education by helping students contextualize their educational experiences and by facilitating joyful, self-directed learning. Framed by research of both gifted K–12 students and college honors students, this article explores specific conversations and course designs that may combat a commodification culture and foster self-reflection and self-direction in honors students.

Creating A Profile Of An Honors Student: A Comparison Of Honors And Non-Honors Students At Public Research Universities In The United States, Andrew J. Cognard-Black, Art L. Spisak

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This study uses data from the 2018 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey of undergraduate degree-seeking students to develop a profile of an honors student. Nineteen research universities participated in the 2018 SERU Survey, with a resulting sample size of almost 119,000 undergraduate students, of whom 15,280 reported participation in or completion of an honors program. No other study has surveyed honors students on such a scale and across so many institutions. This study could be useful for recruiting since it would give recruiters a better idea of what to look for that would make prospects successful in …

Faculty As Honors Problem Solvers, Annmarie Guzy

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Postsecondary honors educators are adept at identifying problems and proposing solutions in honors education, but they may not disseminate their solutions effectively. This essay argues that honors administrators should familiarize themselves with the professional and scholarly resources that NCHC institutional membership affords, and then they should share what they have learned with honors teaching faculty. Rather than simply serving as advisors on administrative and programmatic issues, honors faculty also need the tools and opportunities to be effective honors problem solvers for day-to-day pedagogical issues.

Honors And The Curiouser University, Kristine A. Miller

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

With roots in the Latin cūriōus, meaning “full of care or pains, careful, assiduous, inquisitive,” the word “curiosity,” like this forum on “Current Challenges to Honors Education,” grows out of both the pain and promise of critical inquiry. This essay takes up the challenge of moving honors from the periphery to the heart of higher education by daring to redefine the college or university itself. Honors fosters—and even demands—the curiosity to look beyond the comforting confines of one’s own mind. Facilitating the conversation, collaboration, and innovation that shape a curious university, honors offers students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community …

Disciplinary Affiliation And Administrators’ Reported Perception And Use Of Assessment, Patricia J. Smith, Andrew J. Cognard-Black

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Using survey data collected from 269 participants in the fall of 2016 and the spring of 2017, this study examines whether any changes might have occurred within the last 20 years regarding the disciplinary affiliation of honors administrators. Additionally, we explored current assessment practices of honors administrators and possible associations between these practices and the administrators’ disciplinary affiliation. Our study investigates disciplinary variation among honors directors in their attitudes toward and perceived effectiveness with outcomes assessment. While we mostly found similarities among directors/deans in their use of assessment, some significant differences occurred in attitudes toward and confidence with using assessment …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2019): Forum On Current Challenges To Honors Education

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents
Call for Papers
Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines
Dedication to Linda Frost
Editor’s Introduction Ada Long

Forum Essays on “Current Challenges to Honors Education”

Shunning Complaint: A Call for Solutions from the Honors Community Richard Badenhausen

Congregational Honors: A Model for Inclusive Excellence Naomi Yavneh Klos

Taking on the Challenges of Diversity and Visibility: Thoughts from a Small Honors Program Kathryn M. MacDonald

The Case for Heterodoxy Betsy Greenleaf Yarrison

The Power of Creation: Critical Imagination in the Honors Classroom Jennie Woodard

With Great Privilege Comes Great Responsibility Anne Dotter

No Complaints, Please; Just Time to Rethink …

Walking The Talk: Embedding Standards-Based Grading In An Educational Leadership Course, Matt Townsley

Journal of Research Initiatives

The purpose of this paper is to provide a model for educational leadership faculty who aspire to walk the talk of effective feedback by embedding standards-based grading (SBG) in their courses. Rather than focusing on learning, points are the currency of K-12 classrooms across the country. Over 100 years of grading research suggests typical grading practices are subjective at best. Some schools are responding by implementing SBG, yet few articles describe how higher education embeds this philosophy in educator preparation coursework. In this essay, the author documents how to design assessments, align rubrics, and provide feedback to aspiring school leaders …

External Funding Bulletin, January - June 2019, Uno Office Of Research And Creative Activity

Sponsored Programs Bulletins

This bulletin features recent award recipients.

Performance Assessment Of Aspiring School Leaders Grounded In An Epistemology Of Practice: A Case Study, Jessica E. Charles, Rebecca Cheung, Kristin Rosekrans

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

There is increasing interest in the field of leadership preparation about the opportunities that robust performance assessments may provide to capture and evaluate the complexity of school administrators’ work. Heretofore, the conversation about administrator performance assessment in leadership preparation has mainly centered on the development and impact of large statewide assessments that grow out of a Cartesian epistemology of individual knowledge possession, in which individuals must demonstrate mastery of a set of static knowledge and skills. We analyzed the characteristics of a performance assessment system that deliberately accounts for the organizational complexity of practice and knowledge generation in its design. …

Positionality Matters: School Choice Decisions Based On Ethnographic Accounts Of African American Parents, Dr. Stacy L. Thomas

Dissertations

This research delves into experiences with reasoning and selected criteria for choosing the right school for their children. Beginning with a series of vignettes that assist with recognition of parental empowerment, this research archives acknowledgement of their own positionality when it comes to making life changing decisions. As selected parents of African American children grapple with the strategic balance and possibilities of educational outlets, family and finances, they offer ethnographic accounts of their successes and failures with school choice. Individual accounts of parental school choice decisions posing as data ascertained from interviews provided research that explored the critical frequencies and …

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 32, Spring 2019, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

President's Message, Marc Ebenfield - Salem State University

Social and emotional learning, the key to college success, Kathleen Driscoll, MFA - Formerly Mount Ida College, School of Design and Alison Poor-Donahue, MFA - University of Massachusetts, College of Visual and Performing Arts

Save the date, fall conference, Friday, November 8, 2019

3-C’s For Technology Integration: Coordination, Collaboration, and Co-Construction, Sara Donaldson, Ed.D. - Johns Hopkins University

Using Screencast Technology To Assess And Improve Student Writing: Research and Effectiveness, Forrest R. Rodgers, Ph.D. - Salem State University

The Classroom as Practice, Cris Hakala, Ph.D. - Springfield College

Career-Focused First-Year Seminars: …

University-Community Engagement Projects: Design To Empower Community, Anthony Michael Hanline

Senior Projects

This paper examines University-Community engagement projects from the perspective of an adult student. Explicating the difficulties of community engagement as it applies to team based experiential learning, community partnerships, and university instructors, this paper analyzes personal experience of designing and implementing a community engagement project. To aid in overcoming the obstacles universities face engaging community this paper provides program specific suggestions and visual models explaining the importance of a flexible project design to the mobility, needs, and limitations of the community partner.

Innovations For Communication: Innovations For Improving Honors Faculty-Student Communication, Caroline Simko, Sierra Grogan, Brianne Nickel, Ryan Elliot

Liberal Studies Undergraduate Research

Prepare to embark on a journey of discovery in the realm of the Frederik Meijer Honors College (FMHC) and the student psyche that drives its operations. Over the course of the Winter 2019 semester, the Honors Course: Design Thinking to Meet Real World Needs addressed a problem as proposed by the Honors College Director, Roger Gilles. Using the Stanford method of Design Thinking, our team of four innovators empathized with our problem stakeholders, properly defined our problem, and innovated in order to create potential solutions which will later be prototyped and tested for efficacy. The following report outlines the entirety …

The Dynamic Developers Innovation Portfolio, Carrie Warner, Rosalie Gagnon, Brianna Newcomb, Hannah Samaan, Tyler Mckarge

Liberal Studies Undergraduate Research

We appreciate your interest in the work of our team, The Dynamic Developers. We take great pride in the work we have done over the course of four months. Our research consisted of reading numerous scholarly articles, interviewing multiple stakeholders, and collecting feedback on our work through collaborator debriefs. From this portfolio, you will be able to see the Design Thinking Process we followed to develop a solution that will better student engagement at the Frederik Meijer Honors College. Our team consisted of five Honors College Students with diverse backgrounds and areas of study. Each team member brought different perspectives …