What do you need to know in order to be successful in college? Tough question, isn't it? But it is an essential one to ask because most high school students have no clue what college is like and most college freshmen are shocked and surprised by the knowledge and skills that university professors expect of them. So, back in 1998 the Association of American Universities [with the assistance of the Pew Charitable Trusts] decided to identify what students need to know and be able to do in order to succeed in entry- level university courses at America's research universities. Five years later, the results have been published in a free, 82 page booklet and accompanying CD-ROM titled "Understanding University Success." Included in the booklet is something called "Knowledge and Skills for University Success" [KSUS],
a comprehensive listing of what university faculty expect from
students in entry-level courses. KSUS is divided into six
academic disciplines: English, mathematics, natural sciences,
social sciences, second languages and the arts ...
... To ensure that the material is widely available, the project
is mailing the ... booklet and accompanying CD-ROM to each of
the nearly 20,000 public high schools in the nation, as well as
to state education departments and university leaders.
In addition,
The College Board has licensed Knowledge and Skills for
University Success to be used as a foundational element in the
development of College Board examinations, including the SAT,
PSAT and Advanced Placement exams.
So, how can you get *YOUR* hands on a copy? Easy! Just point your Web browser to
Understanding University Success
You can download the entire booklet for free in Adobe Acrobat PDF
format or order the booklet (US$15.00), CD-ROM (US$5.00), or both
(US$18.00). If you do decide to download the booklet, I have two
small warnings:
1. The booklet is 4.2 Mb so it will take about 10 minutes to
download over a 56K modem and 20 minutes over a 28.8 modem.
2. The downloading process is a little convoluted -- it requires
two pop-up windows and then you can't really right-click and
save as. Your best bet is to either get the zipped version or,
after the PDF file has loaded, click on the floppy icon in
Acrobat (under your browser's address bar) to save the PDF
file to your hard drive.
No matter what way you use to get the booklet, note that each subject
area has two subsections:
1. Foundations -- a macro-level look at the skills and attributes
of successful students in this subject area.
2. Standards -- specific subject area knowledge and skill sets
The standards lists for each of the six subject areas are probably the
most important educational documents to be produced in a long while.
These lists show the skills and knowledge that America's research
universities expect from entering freshmen. Not to put too fine a
point on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if, over the next couple of
years, most states begin to align their K-12 curriculum to align with
the standards in this booklet.
By the way, one thing that the CD offers that the booklet doesn't is
a library of more than 250 work samples and syllabi that
illustrate the quality of work that AAU-university professors
expect of freshmen in entry-level courses.
According to David Conley, Director of the Standards for Success
project,
We have collected real-life examples of student work from
freshman classes along with course syllabi, assignments, lab
exercises and tests ... Teachers can use the course syllabi,
assignments, and student work samples as reference points as
they devise their own curricula.
Just choose the subject area on the left side of the page. You'll still have to navigate the two pop-up windows, though. And if you thought the booklet was big, wait until you try to download the work samples. [The English work sample book has 480 pages and weighs in at a staggering 6.9 Mb.]
Posted by sachauncey at April 28, 2003 02:08 PM