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The Liberal Arts Advantage

Measuring the Deeper Value of a College Education

The Liberal Arts Advantage

Measuring the Deeper Value of a College Education

Showcases new measurement strategies for assessing the impact of a liberal arts education on students and society. 

More than ever before, our society is questioning the meaning and value of higher education, and liberal arts education, in particular, has come under substantial scrutiny. Economic detractors characterize liberal arts education as impractical, claiming that college should prepare students for the workforce. Others object to the curriculum, portraying it as broken or misdirected. According to these critics, the liberal arts education being offered in the United States is marked by its rejection of core intellectual and ideological commitments.

In The Liberal Arts Advantage, a wide range of scholars argue for how and why a liberal arts education uniquely develops skill sets and expertise needed for individuals and society to thrive in the twenty-first century. The contributors address foundational questions about what liberal arts education is, how it has been conceptualized in the past, and what we can learn from its societal and professional impacts. They present compelling, unique research and new methodological tools for assessing the outcomes of liberal arts graduates. Offering grounded and well-founded arguments in favor of our education system, The Liberal Arts Advantage persuasively explains why educational leaders should reinvest in liberal arts education. 


432 pages | 50 halftones, 32 tables | 6 x 9

Economics and Business: Economics--Econometrics and Statistics

Education: Curriculum and Methodology, Higher Education

Sociology: Social Institutions

Reviews

"At a time when liberalarts education is notoriously hard to define and its efficacy hard to measure, this book is a welcome response to the rash assessments that often pass for reasoned debate about its value. Anyone concerned with the future of our imperiled democracy should read it with care and appreciation."

Andrew Delbanco, author of College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be

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