Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP)

Campaign Goals

• Spark public debate about the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values needed to prepare today's students—from school through college—for an era of greater expectations in every sphere of life;
• Challenge the widespread belief that students must choose either a practical education or a liberal education, by building widespread support for educational changes that already are producing a new synthesis of liberal and practical education;
• Make visible the inherent inequities in current practices that steer low-income students to college programs that teach narrow job skills while more advantaged students reap the full benefits of a first-rate liberal education;
• Document national and state progress in providing every student with access to a high quality education that develops intellectual and ethical capacities; expands cultural, societal, and scientific horizons; cultivates democratic and global knowledge and engagement, and prepares graduates for successful participation in a dynamic and rapidly evolving economy;
• Work in selected states to create and implement action plans—organized in partnership with both employers and public schools—to help college and college-bound students understand, prepare for, and achieve a challenging, public-spirited, and practical liberal education.

Vision of Liberal Education

Liberal education is a philosophy of education that empowers individuals with core knowledge and transferable skills and cultivates social responsibility and a strong sense of ethics and values. Characterized by challenging encounters with important issues, a liberal education prepares graduates both for socially valued work and for civic leadership in their society. Learn more about the definition of a modern liberal education.

LEAP Vision for the New Academy

A visual one page summary of the LEAP Vision for the New Academy (pdf), illustrating the Essential Learning Outcomes and new practices and principles campuses are developing to ensure that all students achieve these outcomes.