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Colleges and universities can no longer afford to remain insular when determining which new initiatives can be funded, how, and by whom. As public funding bases dwindle and individual donors begin to identify themselves as investors as well as philanthropists, higher education institutions must increasingly seek out new ways to integrate academic planning, budget processes, and fundraising efforts. Institutions must broaden and diversify their sources of revenue and become more strategic in their planning and the engagement of internal and external constituencies. This paper contains profiles of seven institutions that have worked with the Knight Collaborative to pursue new planning and fundraising initiatives. Their efforts provide lessons for other colleges and universities, especially public institutions, that are struggling to integrate private revenue into their planning, budgeting, and fundraising activities. The institutions profiled are: (1) Cleveland State University, Ohio; (2) Northern Arizona University; (3) Pace University, New York; (4) Portland State University, Oregon; (5) Towson University, Maryland; (6) University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and (7) University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The experiences of these institutions demonstrate that commitment to change must come from the top, but the environment must be right for ideas to bubble up from below. Administrative units must redefine their roles, and the shift in culture must be accompanied by a shift in language. No matter what the changes, the student experience must be the bottom line. (SLD)

This publication presents a portrait of transitions from initial education to working life in the United States. Section I details the distribution of students at two basic levels: K-12 and tertiary education. It introduces a recurring concern--the distribution of students by ethnicity and socioeconomic status--and details the declining importance of vocational education in secondary schools. Section II focuses on tertiary educational attainment and the rise and impact of a highly competitive market for college and university education. Section III narrows the focus by presenting a series of matrixes detailing the rate at which young people transit from school to work and back again. It examines the diminished prospects of high school dropouts and how questions of ethnicity and gender further complicate the picture. Section IV sketches principal changes in the labor market over the last 2 decades and the shifting employment practices now changing the context for the transition from initial education to working life. Section V provides detail on the workings of the youth labor market and discusses briefly churning in the youth labor market. Section VI focuses on employers' assessment of young workers. Section VII describes the major initiatives--public and private--now in place to facilitate the transition from initial education to working life. Section VIII looks ahead to a time when the United States might have a less robust economy. (40 references) (YLB)

This report describes efforts by Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) to recast its mission more narrowly while at the same time reducing the sense of remoteness and disconnection, as well as geographic isolation, between the main campus and its branch campuses. In the early 1980s, ENMU suffered from mission drift, in part as a result of its efforts to look like a research university at the expense of other programs. After a 1987 North Central Association accreditation visit, ENMU focused its mission by pruning nine undergraduate and six graduate programs that no longer served the students or the region; four programs more consistent with local demand were added. Subsequently, ENMU's mission was revised, and six strategic priorities (including significant investment in technology and distance education) were identified. Technology became the means for most of ENMU's ends, including curriculum reform and a commitment to serving the whole range of students' academic and co-curricular needs. The university's willingness to experiment has resulted in a string of successes in implementing new technology in distance and traditional instruction, including the use of interactive instructional television, email, listservs, multimedia presentations, and the Internet to deliver instructional material. Institutional statistics and a list of milestones on ENMU's path to reform are included. (MAB)

This report describes the efforts of Babson College (Massachusetts) to change its traditional undergraduate business curriculum by designing a coherent program of greater rigor and flexibility that stresses interdisciplinary collaboration, supports individual learning needs, and links theory with field-based learning. In less than 3 years, Babson conceived, ratified, and implemented a radically different undergraduate program; the speed of implementation was in part a result of Babson's prior move to use separate, decentralized decision-making bodies for the undergraduate program, the graduate program, and for faculty appointment and tenure decisions. The comprehensive, competency-based program stresses learning-by-doing, gives students greater control over and responsibility for their educations, and contains three development levels: the first-year Foundation Program, which includes self-reflective work, integrated humanities and quantitative courses, and hands-on experience developing and running a business; the third through fifth semester Intermediate Program, which includes integrated liberal arts courses and a core management program; and in the remaining three semesters, the Advanced Program, in which students follow a curriculum and co-curricular program developed with the assistance of mentors during the intermediate program. Institutional statistics and a list of milestones on Babson's path to reform are included. (MAB)

This report describes the efforts of Mount St. Mary's College (California) to extend the benefits of a strong, traditional baccalaureate program to an underserved population of women in an urban region, including substantial numbers of minority and first-generation college students. To help realize its service mission and increase access to students from the college's inner-city community, the college opened its Doheny Campus in South Central Los Angeles in 1962. As increasing numbers of women from inner-city schools began arriving underprepared for college-level work, the college established the Alternative Access program in 1984 to help Doheny students achieve high educational standards and persist to graduation. The hallmarks of the college's other educational innovations--multicultural multicultural education, service learning, leadership, and assessment--have their foundations in the college's "whole student" approach. Further, the college's programs are not limited to learning support; through applied service learning activities and co-curricular experiences, students are not only given an opportunity to relate theory with practice but also to make contributions to their own communities. The most tangible reason for student success, however, is the faculty's commitment to their students--to teaching, learning, and continual inquiry and improvement. Mount St. Mary's College stresses, up front, the roles of teachers and mentor to current and prospective faculty. Institutional statistics and a list of milestones on the school's path to reform are included. (MAB)

A national survey was conducted to identify employers' practices and expectations in their search for a skilled and proficient work force. Of over 4,000 employers contacted, 3,347 participated. Establishments reported that just over 80 percent of workers were fully proficient in their current jobs. Neither the restructuring of the U.S. economy nor the rapid introduction of new technologies had led to a "deskilling" of work. Use of high-performance work systems remained the exception. Almost all establishments provided formal or informal training. The most common program taught the safe use of equipment and tools. Both the improvement of teamwork efforts and customer service ranked second. Training to use computers and other new equipment ranked a close third. Fifty percent of employers used equipment suppliers or buyers to provide training. Slightly more used private consultants (36 percent) and private industry councils or other industry associations (34 percent) than they did technical or vocational institutions (33 percent) and community or junior colleges (30 percent). Attitudes, communication skills, job experience, and industry credentials ranked higher than schooling measures in hiring decisions. Policymakers should do the following: help form partnerships between school and work, make educational performance measures and credentials more meaningful to employers, and help employers reevaluate the use of educational outlets as suppliers of training. (YLB)

The old "nature versus nurture" argument has resurfaced in a new guise--the role of inherent ability or of education as the source of skill and the reason for achievement. Research shows that even one additional year of schooling raises a person's wages. Even when the relationship among education, productivity, and wages appears obvious, there is evidence for two arguments. The screening argument holds that investments in education reveal the job-relevant abilities and skills that students already possess--stopping some while allowing others to pass through the mesh. The human capital model argues that skills are acquired through investment in education, which adds to the overall volume of ability. Driving this debate is the notion of the returns provided both to the individual and society by educational attainment. However, structural changes in the economy, changes in policy, and shifts in demographics illustrate how societal trends contribute to the fluctuations in returns to education. Recommendations to find the most effective location for educational attainment include the following: developing better means of determining job-relevant abilities, encouraging business-school networks, increasing retention and educational attainment, and making educational loans and financial aid more accessible to students for whom investment in educational attainment shows real promise. (YLB)

For many youths, the early years in the labor market are characterized not by an absence of jobs but rather by a "churning" process that often delays the benefits of high school educational experiences for several years. Youth apprenticeship programs should be designed to serve as a strategy/vehicle of school reform, function as a labor market program, and create institutional structures that link employers and schools. Among the principles that should be followed in designing youth apprenticeship programs are the following: permit students to change their minds about choices; link work and schooling in a substantive way; encourage schooling beyond high school; avoid tracking, gender discrimination, adult displacement, and highly specific training; and provide high quality work placements rather than just work experience. Special attention must be paid to obtaining placements, developing certification criteria and procedures, and obtaining an adequate research and development base. A youth employment policy should do the following: reflect existing demands for youth labor, facilitate the school-to-work transition, be school based, and provide adequate services to out-of-school and disadvantaged youth. (Contains 16 references.) (MN)

This report describes efforts by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (New York) to reinvent teaching and learning through the development of a comprehensive curriculum to make learning more student-centered, and to utilize innovative technology in the classroom by replacing the lecture-lab-recitation format with smaller, interactive studio courses. A two-staged restructuring process was initiated to: (1) realize academic excellence through interactive learning, and (2) to preserve financial equilibrium without passing costs on to students. Building on efforts that had already led to the introduction of computer-enhanced calculus into the curriculum, Rensselaer introduced active learning in mathematics, science, and engineering in the form of studio courses with limited enrollments and project-based approaches to instruction. Lecture halls were transformed into "theaters-in-the-round," where students sit at multimedia-based computer workstations and interact with their professors, who teach and lead discussions from the center of the circle. Professors are able to monitor students' work on their own networked workstation, and students feel the need to come to class prepared to demonstrate what they have learned. Comments from students, faculty, and administrators on the new approach to teaching and learning at Rensselaer are included. (MDM)

This report describes efforts by Alverno College (Wisconsin) to reform the traditional liberal arts curriculum and redefine the relevance of women's colleges. Beginning in the early 1970s, the college began to refocus student learning by integrating ability development and performance-based knowledge. Faculty and staff redefined the curriculum, basing requirements not just on disciplinary content but also on the mastery and application of eight abilities: communication, analysis, problem solving, values in decision making, social interaction, global perspectives, effective citizenship, and aesthetic responsiveness. Rather than assigning letter grades, the college registrar keeps track of students' mastery of each ability, based on student work that becomes part of an extensive portfolio. The college also draws upon the experience of 600 external assessors to help evaluate students' progress. To develop and refine the college's changing curriculum, each faculty member is affiliated with both an academic department and an ability area, and each year faculty engage in three week-long institutes to address the curriculum. Comments from students and an administrator on the effectiveness of the college's curriculum are included. (MDM)

This report describes efforts by Portland State University (Oregon) (PSU) to undertake administrative restructuring, reinvent the curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus, and initiate experiential learning programs that benefit both students and the community. By reducing support staff and middle management, PSU freed up funds to create a cohesive, three-tiered University Studies program that features year-long Freshman and Sophomore Inquiry courses built around interdisciplinary themes; upper-division Cluster Courses in the junior and senior years; and a Senior Capstone Experience, an integrated service-learning experience that involves every student in an academically based community project. To implement the curriculum, faculty collaborate across departments and in groups to propose interdisciplinary courses and Capstone projects. Comments from a student and an administrator on the effectiveness of PSU's new curriculum are included. (MDM)

Although most people agree that not enough entry workers possess the skills required for success in the workplace, few individuals are able to articulate clearly why and where the skills gap occurs. Despite the popularity of blaming schools and curricula, little hard evidence exists to support the claim that U.S. secondary school performance is declining relative to its standing in recent decades. Research studies focusing on enterprises, schools, and workers have established the following: (1) employees consistently identify deficits in employees' behavioral skills as the primary cause of poor job performance; (2) efforts to bolster students' academic skills through high school reform are worthwhile, but it must be remembered that education must impart more than basic skills; and (3) the workplace rewards workers who possess work-related behavioral skills and attitudes. Educational legislation and policy must address these concerns through the following actions: (1) encourage the fostering of behavioral skills through legislation focusing on the connection between school and work; (2) use work-based learning programs and appropriate classroom techniques to foster development of attitudes and behaviors that translate well in work environments; and (3) investigate which work-related attitudes and behaviors are most important for success in the workplace. (MN)