Constellations foster 3fold gains
The constellation (a single pattern of mutually supportive institutional features) fosters 3fold gains (improves quality, access, and affordability). To define what’s part of (or not part of the constellation), consider the causes of a specific set of 3fold gains.
The core of many (most?) constellations are High-Impact Practices such as undergraduate research, service learning, and mentored internships. Research (source needed) suggests that HIPs cause 3fold gains. All kinds of student develop greater understanding (quality). Students from underserved groups tend to catch up to traditional students (equitable access to degrees). Higher graduation rates increase the average return on investment for entering students; earlier graduations save the student both time and money; institutional costs are reduced as well. (affordability).
However, HIPs cannot be institutionalized at scale unless they are complemented by other institutional features such as the tools and routines needed to assess the outcomes and a well-staffed office to create many sites where students can gain academically valuable experience off- and on-campus.
Those HIPs are just one element within a well-aligned institution’s collection of strengths ( its constellation) for making 3fold gains.
Three domains comprise a constellation
Effective constellations consist of mutually supportive:
educational strategies (like HIPs implemented at scale),
organizational foundations (e.g., an office to develop and sustain a network of off-campus sites for undergraduate research and service learning), and
wider world interactions (e.g, marketing to potential students who are attracted by the opportunity to work on HIPs).
Here are many examples of educational strategies, organizational foundations, and wider world interactions.
Confusors - dangerously ambiguous terms
Each of the following terms (and many other words and phrases used in describing higher education) have at least two widely-accepted but conflicting definitions. When someone includes a confusor in a statement or question without defining the term, the result can be chaotic such heated arguments and seeming unanimity cloaking invisible disagreements.
For each of the following terms, our definition is boldfaced.
Quality: this term has at least three widely used definitions for describing academic programs.
Selected capabilities, achievements, and attributes of students completing their courses of study (our definition)
Evidence-based teaching and learning activities that improve learning compared with mainly presentation-centered teaching; (secondary definition); or
Resources (inputs): institutional inputs and resources such as selectivity; test scores of admitted students; faculty; facilities.
Access (equitable):
Equal ability to enroll in college for many kinds of students;
All potential students judged for admission by the same standard;
Many kinds of students will have an equal chance to achieve excellence by the time they complete their academic programs (our definition)
Affordability:
Price or the fixed cost in money and time of carrying out a function (e.g., engage almost all students in significant experiential learning at least once each year) ;
The cost of a successful initiative is malleable, not fixed. Bowen’s research on institutional spending on instruction concluded that the history of revenue (or budget allocations) determines the cost of that activity. Similarly, jocular economist C. Northcote Parkinson declared that work expands to fill the time available. (page reference in book)
Whether students, faculty and staff, and the institution itself have the resources and motivation to invest the money and/or time. For example, when budgets are cut, an institution might review 20 programs and then cut one they decide they can’t afford, even though it was not the most expensive program to run.
Additional definitions
At scale: an academic program or service is operating at scale when all the relevant people use it. If a summer bridge program’s budget allows it to serve only half of the at-risk students, that program is not yet working at scale.
Instruction Paradigm - a set of mutually consistent assumptions about learning. The most basic (and mistaken) assumption is that students’ ability to do the work is fixed by the time they enter college. However, when teaching merely presents content, the less promising students entering the institution don’t get a genuine chance to learn. This assumption is consistent with the goal of exclusive excellence.
Learning Paradigm: a set of mutually consistent assumptions about learning. Most importantly, research has demonstrated that the intellectual abilities of many kinds of students can be developed if the institution embraces practices such as High-Impact Practices and Guided Pathways to Learning. This brings the goal of inclusive excellence within reach. Chapter 1 of Pursuing Quality, Access, and Affordability details just how practices such as these can foster inclusive excellence. Chapter 6 uses these paradigms to describe how institutions support learning, pedagogically and organizationally. These practices are directed toward Inclusive excellence.
Scale: see “At scale” above.
3Fold gains (simultaneous improvements in quality, access, and affordability) made possible by the institution’s constellation (a set of mutually consistent educational strategies, organizational foundations, and interactions with the institution’s wider world).