College Improvement: The Voice of Teachers and Managers

Data derived from "Raising Quality and Achievement" development projects, started in 1999 in more than 80 colleges in England led to conclusions about successful strategies to raise achievement and improve retention and about the meaning of college improvement. The projects were described in the form of case studies. A number of generalizations were inferred from the case studies on these themes: (1) the importance of innovation; (2) the colleges' strong beliefs that they can improve; (3) strategies recommended were directed at teaching, tutoring, and curriculum issues; (4) practitioners and managers believed that retention and achievement require a mix of strategies; (5) successful strategies for improvement were specific, diverse, flexible, and renewable, and the colleges believed there was no single solution; (6) students must come first (balance high expectations for them with efforts to develop and deepen student motivation) (7) "think college, act course" in terms of leadership; (8) professional development is an integral part of raising achievement and can take many forms besides training; (9) systems are important only as a means to an end in improving achievement; and (10) contact time for students and time for tutoring staff were the resources for college improvement mentioned most often. (Contains 29 references.) (KC/CL)