As student populations continue to diversify (American Council on Education, 2019; U.S. Department of Education, 2019), programs that support faculty in effective teaching across differences grow in importance. At Lindenwood, 15% of students are Black/African American, 4% are Hispanic/Latinx, 22% are international, and 34% of undergraduates are eligible for Pell Grants. Equity gaps exist for some student groups. Black undergraduates show 6% lower retention rates than white undergraduates and 15% lower 6-year graduation rates. They graduate in four years at about half the rate that international students do. Similar gaps exist for retention and graduation rates of Pell-eligible students.

Gawronski, Kuk, and Lombardi (2016) note, “The more faculty members are able to expand their repertoire of research-based instructional strategies that meet a wide variety of student needs, the greater impact they could have on student achievement” (p. 332). The RISE Project aims to address these needs, and the Learning Academy seeks to assess and demonstrate its impact through research.

For our RISE research studies, we aim to connect the dots between faculty development and student learning, test the utility of the RISE framework, and validate particular pedagogical strategies.

Faculty members that participated in RISE research will be involved both as research participants and as co-creators of knowledge to help us discover if and how changes to pedagogy impact student learning and student experiences. This research project will be a collaborative basis for exploring grant funding, scholarly presentation, and publication in this area.