The Future of Undergraduate Education, The Future of America is published at a critical moment in our nation's history, when so many long-standing assumptions about who we are as a people, and where we are headed, have been called into question.For over a century, we have pursued grand ambitions-groundbreaking scientific discoveries, life-changing technological advances, hard-won social change-and emerged ever stronger, if still imperfect, from our struggles. In recent years, however, we appear to have lost some of that motivating enthusiasm, the optimism that has always lifted us as a people. As we grapple with persistent social inequalities, widening political divisions, prolonged international conflict, and intensifying environmental challenges, we often seem more concerned with the limits of our present capabilities than in the realization of our dreams.If we are to regain our momentum, as we have after so many other challenging moments in our past, we will have to find new ways to channel our inexhaustible creativity, restore a measure of civility to the national discourse, and bridge our differences. In short, we will have to recommit to the promise of education-to study the lessons of the past, analyze the requirements of the present, and imagine the innovations that will brighten our future. Education is not the solution to every problem, but it is often the best tool we have at our disposal, and there is good reason to believe it has been the primary source of our greatest achievements over the past century. This report offers practical and actionable recommendations to improve the undergraduate experience. But in its practicality, it is motivated by the highest ideals: faith that every person, from every background, can succeed in America when given the proper training and preparation; confidence that our existing institutions of higher education can and will evolve to meet the needs of today's and future students; and an unwavering commitment to the free exchange of ideas as the basis of a creative, productive, and democratic society. As stated in the conclusion of this report, "Progress is not guaranteed, and good things will happen only with sustained effort, but if we can sustain focus on the work, combining patience with urgency, we can, through undergraduate education, make great advances as individuals and as a nation. "The Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, which authored this report, was created in 2015 by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in response to a suggestion from Dr. Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corporation of New York. Dr. Gregorian observed that the context and expectations for American undergraduate education had changed dramatically over the past few decades, as our colleges and universities opened their doors to new populations of students (young and old, traditional and nontraditional, immigrant and international) and that it was time for a new study to examine the student educational journey. He therefore asked the American Academy to examine...

This study investigated at-risk freshmen’s future-oriented motivation (motivation for developing and pursuing academic future goals) and future-oriented self-regulated learning (commitment to utilizing self-regulatory strategies to achieve those goals) using the Persistent Academic Possible Selves Scale (PAPSS). Study goals were to validate the factor structure of the PAPSS and to assess the relationships between the PAPSS factors and important academic measures. Probationary at-risk freshmen due to low grade point averages (i.e., below 2.0) participated in an online survey at the end of the semester ( n = 226). The final factor model consists of three persistent goal factors (improving grades, better student, and more attention in class) and four theory-based factors (social identity, self-concept, motivational self-regulation, and performance). The factor structure and the relationships between the factors and other measures supported the PAPSS as an adequately valid measure for assessing at-risk college students’ future-oriented motivation and future-oriented self-regulated learning in educational settings.

Institutions are redesigning gateway courses—lower-division courses known to create student success bottlenecks—to influence persistence and completion goals. These initiatives, student success course redesigns (SSCR), are specialized versions of course design institutes (CDIs). This investigation into SSCRs uses content analysis to examine the implementation plans created during a SSCR. Results demonstrated that the majority of the strategies planned focused on the Learning key performance indicator (KPI), and the minority of the planned-for strategies focused on the Monitoring Student Performance KPI. A more granular analysis of the Learning strategies revealed five themes: Content, Assessment, Pedagogy, Syllabus, and Student Success. Additional results indicated the majority of planned strategies would occur out of class, and disciplinary differences between science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and non-STEM faculty for pedagogical and content design changes. Results also demonstrated a need for more faculty to utilize actionable language for course redesign strategies. Moreover, the implementation plans provided useful assessment feedback of the CDI itself.