What educational experiences have helped college graduates to successfully complete their degrees and prepare for their chosen careers? What motivates them to be curious and confident learners throughout their lives? This book examines these questions and more through seminal research and in-depth interviews of 150 college freshmen, college seniors, and recently hired college graduates across the United States. These first-hand accounts-including what helped them overcome their gaps and achieve success, brought fresh surprises.

How should we teach to prepare graduates with the needed knowledge, skills, and dispositions to thrive? What learning opportunities are needed for students to have the capacity to think critically and solve problems in the 21st Century? The authors are excited to reveal what high school and college graduates shared about how their teachers and professors impacted their learning and achievement. This book gives teachers, professors, parents, and administrators seeking to understand effective instructional strategies and models for today's students, a framework that analyzes current research and forms a deeper inquiry starting in the front row seats of America's classrooms. How do high school and college graduates describe high-impact educators and learning? We finally asked.