About Our AlumsHow does a college know whether its graduates are prepared to be effective contributors in work, family and civic roles? At Alverno, we know that the accepted comparison of graduates of a particular college to national averages doesn't begin to answer this question. We had to look further than the usual statistics on careers and salaries that colleges and the U.S. Department of Education regularly collect and the indices that college guides use to rank colleges. Instead, with major involvement from our alumnae, we studied the actual performance of our graduates in diverse settings five years after graduation. We found that the majority are effective performers. They are clear thinkers and problem solvers in novel situations, articulate communicators in settings where the message is the means to achievement, initiators when the barriers seem impassable, skilled interpersonally when teamwork is demanded. Most importantly, they act with integrity even when there are strong pressures to do otherwise. We also had to show that learning lasts, and that the teaching at Alverno is responsible for it. We all expect that graduates perform in part because they learn and are taught by others after college. But we were able to pinpoint the enduring effects of an Alverno education, beyond the expected growth due to maturity and opportunity. Our understanding of what makes our alumnae successful is essential to teaching and learning at Alverno. Setting high standards creates a corresponding challenge: we must keep the teaching up to the learning needed; we must make sure all students learn. We use what we learn about alumnae growth and performance to improve student learning and to test the effectiveness our our educational approach and the assumptions that undergird it. For additional information, visit the Research on Learning That Lasts Web page.
|
 |