ACTA's What Will They Learn?® (WWTL) project is designed to help students choose the best college or university for them. The printed report and its online companion WhatWillTheyLearn.com represent the only assessment of U.S. colleges and universities that focuses on what schools are actually teaching. This report assigns grades to over 1,130…

"What Will They Learn?" has been documenting for the last 13 years the crisis of weak core curriculum requirements. In addition to helping students choose the right college for the right reasons, American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) works with college and university leaders on campuses around the country to strengthen curricula…

In this 12th edition of its flagship annual survey of college general education curricula, "What Will They Learn?," American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) shines a light on the wide disparity in academic standards at institutions of higher learning across the country. "What Will They Learn?" reviews the core curricula…

In the United States, colleges and universities have traditionally undertaken the important task of preparing citizens to participate fully and effectively in the civic, political, and economic spheres of the republican system. They have done so by joining a general education curriculum--common to all students--to an area of specialized knowledge,…

Ten years ago, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) gathered data on 100 colleges from the U.S. News & World Report's annual list of "Best Colleges and Universities." ACTA questioned whether these elite institutions were requiring their students to take rigorous, college-level courses in the core areas crucial for…

The American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has released "What Will They Learn? 2012-13," the fourth edition, evaluating the general education requirements at 1,070 colleges and universities. Unlike other college rankings, ACTA does not consider an institution's wealth, prestige, or popularity. Rather, ACTA rates institutions…

This is the final report of the evaluation of Project CAUSE, a three year project to improve the laboratory portions of undergraduate physics courses at North Texas State University. The report is divided into six sections. Included in the overview are goals and purposes, the instructional format, and the evaluation plan. Demographic profiles…

In 1990, a statewide study was conducted to examine issues which affected the teaching of science in Florida's community colleges and to make recommendations for improvement. The study involved reviews of the literature and existing data, the selection of an advisory committee and committee meetings, site hearings, and the creation and…

This report is an evaluation of the Integrated Science Program for undergraduate students at Northwestern University. Four aspects of the program were investigated: (1) history and development, (2) curriculum, (3) effect on students' attitudes and behaviors, and (4) the impact of the program on students' careers. Recommendations for future action…

Since 1959, ACT has collected and reported data on students' academic readiness for college. Because becoming ready for college is a process that occurs throughout elementary and secondary education, measuring academic performance over time in the context of college readiness provides meaningful and compelling information about the college…

Provides some of the results of the Engineering Manpower Commission's fall 1986 survey of enrollments in engineering education. Includes tabular data on those enrollments categorized by students in all institutions surveyed and for just those students in accredited programs, as well as by curriculum and by school and state. (TW)

Learning style is a composite of those elements that serve as a relatively stable indicator of how a learner perceives, interacts with, and responds to the learning environment. This paper presents quantitative data related to learning styles and qualitative data related to learning environments which could suggest changes in biology courses and…

Courses taken for the bachelor's degrees are examined for specific majors and overall fields of study (i.e., education, humanities, social sciences, quantitative fields, and business). Analyses are based on college transcripts of 4,440 participants in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. Majors in quantitative fields…

This report was developed by the National Science Foundation to focus attention on a particular field of engineering. It addresses the human resources and funding for mechanical engineering programs through several perspectives. The first major section, "Personnel," discusses employment levels and trends, salaries, sectors of employment,…