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Linking High-Impact Learning & Community Engagementfor the American Democracy Project Conference • June 9, 2012"Ariane Hoy (Bonner Foundation) & Mathew Johnson (Siena College and Bonner Foundation)

Today we will:

✤ Explore 10 High-Impact Practices"

✤ Introduce you to the Bonner Program"

✤ Share where this idea came from"

✤ Provide the opportunity to wrestle with ideas

Introductions...

High-Impact Learning Practices

High-Impact Practices

~ first year seminars"~ common intellectual experiences "

~ learning communities "~ writing-intensive courses"

~collaborative assignments & projects "~ undergraduate research"

~ diversity/global learning "~ internships & project-based learning"

~ service-learning & community-based learning"~ capstone courses & projects

Overview

The Bonner Program

A Live Google Map

Introduction to Our National NetworkBonner Scholar and Leader Programs at more than 60 institutions of higher education

Who is a Bonner?✤ A committed undergraduate—likely

from a low-income background (85%+)"

✤ Joins a cohort-based program"

✤ Serves 8-10 hours every week, across four years in developmental progression"

✤ Interns with local, national and international organizations during the school year and full-time in summer"

✤ Participates in education, training, meetings, reflection"

✤ Is more likely to graduate and have better grades

The Bonner Network✤ 60 active Bonner Scholar and

Leader Programs; 15 start-up"

✤ Diverse liberal arts institutions, public and private"

✤ 3,000+ students"

✤ Focus on under-represented students: low income, students of color, first generation"

✤ 6,000 + alumni"

✤ 25 endowed campus programs at $163 million total

A proven program model...

with elements to scale

Proven Program Model

✤ Student learning, development and leadership"

✤ Reciprocal community partnerships and impact"

✤ Campus infrastructure and culture of service

Student Impact

✤ Four years are significant"

✤ Proven skill learning (developmental model)"

✤ Commitment to social justice"

✤ Dialogue across difference"

✤ Structured and unstructured reflection"

✤ The importance of mentors"

✤ Civic-minded professionalism

Longitudinal assessment involving 25 campus programs; pre and post assessment

Deep Partnerships✤ 3,000 students engaging in 1

million hours of service each year"

✤ Developmental multi-year partnerships"

✤ Partners as co-educators"

✤ Connecting all available campus assets to community needs"

✤ Direct service, CBR, service-learning projects, policy research

Campus Infrastructure✤ Infrastructure for community

service and academic community engagement"

✤ FIPSE funded model for civic engagement minors and certificates"

✤ Seeding community based research over 15 years at 30+ institutions"

✤ Staffing model that builds the capacity, range and depth of campus program

Alumni Impact

✤ 33% in non-profit sector careers"

✤ 32% in government careers"

✤ 25% in for-profit careers"

✤ Career choices driven by a desire to affect positive change"

✤ 90% demonstrating civic action in past 12 months"✤ joined organization; signed petition; did not

buy a product due to company values; contacted a public official"

✤ 90% voted in last election

30 campuses, 1066 Participants; 22-50 years old; 32% response rate

Bonner Alumni Remain Engagedvolunteering at notably higher rates than average U.S. citizens

Average Volunteering Rates vs. Bonner Graduates

Where this idea came from...

listening to our network

Origins of the Initiative✤ Vision—Aim to

be at the cutting edge of institutional change"

✤ Data—NASCE"✤ Learning—HIPs"✤ Practice—HICEPs

Why change is needed?

✤ Higher education at a Crucible Moment"

✤ Financial challenges"✤ Structural changes"✤ Performance crisis"✤ A unique

opportunity

Data—National Assessment of Service & Community Engagement✤ Developed by Siena Research

Institute as a gauge of institutional engagement"

✤ Implemented by 35+ institutions"

✤ 14K completes—now the largest national data set on civic engagement"

✤ Telling findings—more than half of students are never engaged"

✤ Average POP score - mid 20’s"

✤ Structure matters

Learning—Academic Community Engagement at a Crossroads

✤ Three Learn & Serve grants and fifteen years working on community-based research "

✤ Civic engagement minor (FIPSE, monograph)"

✤ Assessment points to importance and limits of course-based service-learning"

✤ Broader calls for the re-imagination of service-learning"

✤ Most successful initiatives (ADP, BTtoP, Greater Expectations) cross boundaries and inform institutional change

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Engaged Learning—A Part of the Solution

✤ Generated from the Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Initiative, a project of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)"

✤ Proven to be effective with higher than expected student learning and success, especially with under-represented students"

✤ ALL of them could be connected with community engagement

High-Impact Practices

~ first year seminars"~ common intellectual experiences "

~ learning communities "~ writing-intensive courses"

~collaborative assignments & projects "~ undergraduate research"

~ diversity/global learning "~ internships & project-based learning"

~ service-learning & community-based learning"~ capstone courses & projects

Practice—The Field is Moving Towards Results-Oriented Approaches

✤ Recession and troubled economy has driven increased demand"

✤ Shrinking public funding and declining revenues "

✤ Nonprofit mergers are increasing"

✤ Campus-community partnerships with long histories still need strategies and tools to measure social impact

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Engaged Practice—High Impact Community Engagement Practice (HICEPs)✤ Developed by the Bonner Foundation and

Network’s 20+ years of building and managing developmental campus-community partnerships"

✤ Position campus and community in democratic engagement, characterized as:"✤ reciprocal"✤ problem-solving oriented"✤ knowledge co-creation"✤ many types of public spaces

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Engaged Practice—High Impact Community Engagement Practice (HICEPs)

1. PLACE "

2. HUMILITY"

3. INTEGRATION"

4. DEPTH"

5. DEVELOPMENT"

6. SEQUENCE"

7. TEAMS

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Engaged Practice—High Impact Community Engagement Practice (HICEPs)

8. REFLECTION"9. MENTORS"10. CAPACITY"11. LEARNING"12. EVIDENCE"13. CAPACITY"14. IMPACT

Bridging frameworks—towards democratic A goal to draw out the opportunities for campuses and communities to be fully engaged

Our theory of change...strategic campus-community teams

High-Impact Strategic Goals

✤ Scale proven best practices in community engagement by integrating them across the curriculum"

✤ Create more faculty participation in community engagement that is connected to evidence-based practice"

✤ Help campuses create and demonstrate community impact

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Four Guiding Principles

Pervasiveness"Depth"

Integration"Developmental

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Institutional Change

Low High

!!!!

Low Adjustment (I) Isolated Change"(II)

!!!

High Far-Reaching Change"

(III)

Transformational Change

(IV)

Depth

[Saltmarsh, J. (2009). Adapted from Eckel, Hill, & Green. (1998)]Pervasiveness

I

II IV

III

VII

VIII

V

VI

3-­‐Dimensional  Model    

!(“Johnson  Cube”)  

!  [Saltmarsh  &  Clayton  (2011)]  

[Graphic  by  K.  Buchner]

Pervasive

Deep

Integrated

low high

low

high

low

high

Four Major Strategies

✤ Integrate high-impact educational practices and high-impact community engagement"

✤ Use data and evidence-based practice to drive institutional strategy towards full engagement"

✤ Build, support, and leverage campus transformation teams"

✤ Be an active convener and catalyst for a national learning community—spurring partnerships across the field that move community engagement towards greater impact

Illustration of Connections

First Year Seminars First Year Trips / Immersions

Common Intellectual Experiences Site/Team Based Project Design

Learning Communities Cohort Training Meetings

Writing Intensive Courses Policy Research Assignments

Collaborative Projects Issue Briefs/Program Models/CBR

Undergraduate Research Capacity Building Projects

Diversity /Global Learning Junior (Elective) Trips / Internships

Internships / Project-Based Learning Sequence of developmental placements, "tied to coursework

Capstone Courses Capstone Service Projects

Strategy 1Integrate high-impact educational practices and high-impact community engagement

Strategy 2Use data and evidence-based practice to drive institutional strategy for full engagement

Types of Data

NSEE Institutional learning performance

NASCE Institution wide student engagement

Survey of Community Partners Satisfaction; Capacity contributions

Survey of Faculty Institution wide faculty engagement

Strategic Planning Issue Briefs/Program Models/CBR

Proven Program Models Capacity Building Projects

Indicators (Public Data) Junior (Elective) Trips / Internships

Community Impact Assessments to be gathered and shared

Strategy 3Build, support, and leverage campus transformation teams

projects

Professor

Professor

Partner

Partner

Student

Student

Staff

Staff

Year 1"• Build team & campus climate"

• Data collection & planning"

• Identify assets"• Attend institute"• Select & do first

projects

Year 2"• Expand team & participation"

• Attend institute"• Select & do next two projects"

• Document and share learning (conferences, publications)

Year 3"•Attend institute"• Sustainability vision & plan"

• Refine projects, possibly others"

• Begin to implement

impact assessment

Year 4 on...continue to participation in national learning community

Small Group Discussion

linking HIP with HICEPS

Strategy Be an active convener and catalyst for a national learning community—spurring partnerships across the field that move community engagement towards greater impact

Year 1 Cohort

StrategyNational Learning Community

•Association of American Colleges and Universities Crucible Moment, HIPs

•American Association of State Colleges & Universities

American Democracy Project

•Bringing Theory to Practice

Psychosocial Well-being, Assessment Models

IARSLCE Research and theoretical base

•Imagining America Collaboratories, faculty development paths, tenure & promotion

•NERCHEFull Participation, institutional transformation, Carnegie Classification, Democratic Engagement

•Open Indicators Consortium

Community impact models using public data, open source