Building a Culture of Transparency

Most universities respond to public demands for accountability in the form of increased attention to rates of performance, retention, and graduation. In our experience, these metrics are often administrators' or departments' main concerns when conducting self-studies for program review. However, there are other important measures of student success prior to these outcomes that are often overlooked or dismissed as classroom issues. When considered within an institutional framework of faculty development, we feel that providing faculty with opportunities to codevelop course content and approaches to teaching and learning can also contribute greatly to student engagement and success.Toward that end, a team of California State University-Los Angeles (CSU-LA) faculty from our biology, Chicana/o studies, child development and family studies, English, and liberal studies departments recently participated in the AACU and in a child development class called Urban Families (Kouyoumdjian), students worked with middle school students and parents. …