The Teaching-Family Model was one of the earliest approaches to be supported by an extensive research base. As it has evolved over four decades, it retains the focus on teaching and learning but incorporates a strength- and relationship-based orientation. The model is also unique in gathering ongoing practice-based evidence to insure quality.

Since 2006, 19 institutions across the United States have been trying to figure out how to work smarter through their participation in the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education. Drawing on data from the first year of the study, the robust, mixed-methods study the authors report in this article evaluated growth in the first year of…