Supporting Integrative Learning
The Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education is the National Resource Center for Learning Communities. In addition to its emphasis on learning communities, the Center partners with organizations and institutions to promote practical, high-impact practices responsive to current trends and challenges in the field. The Center is committed to supporting successful change initiatives grounded in institutional culture, with a focus on eliminating equity gaps and increasing student success.
Connecting Through Curriculum
The Washington Center is for the academic success of all students, particularly those underserved in higher education. As a high impact strategy, learning communities offer a powerful learning environment for students at key points in their education. Implementing successful learning community programs is an intentional way to help build institutional capacity for transformation.
History and Legacy
The Washington Center has continually served higher education professionals across the nation since it's creation as an Evergreen public service center in 1985. The Center was created with support from the Ford Foundation and the Exxon Foundation and in its first years worked in collaboration with colleagues from the state’s higher education community to foster highly effective, low-cost curricular improvements through faculty development, mainly focused on learning communities. As the National Resource Center for Learning Communities, the Washington Center has a distinguished tradition of convening learning community leaders to shape and sustain this high-impact practice.
From 2013 through 2021, the Center published the Learning Communities Research and Practice Journal, an open-access, peer-reviewed journal that promoted practices and knowledge to strengthen the learning community field. The Washington Center continues to engage faculty, staff, administrators, and researchers through services and programs including institutes, workshops, consultations, publications, and presentations.