PULSE Pilot Certification Results

The pilot certification process is an ambitious, nationwide endeavor designed to motivate important changes in life sciences education that are in line with the recommendations of the 2011 Vision and Change Report: A Call to Action (American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 2011). It is the goal of the certification process to acknowledge departments that have progressed towards full implementation of the tenets of Vision and Change and to motivate departments that have not begun to adopt the recommendations to consider doing so. More than 70 life science departments applied to be part of the pilot certification process, funded by a National Science Foundation grant, and eight were selected based on initial evidence of transformed and innovative educational practices. The programs chosen represent a wide variety of schools, including two-year colleges, liberal-arts institutions, regional comprehensive colleges, research universities and minority serving institutions. Outcomes from this pilot were released June 1, 2015 (www.pulsecommunity.org), with all eight programs being recognized as having progressed along a continuum of change. Five levels of achievement were defined as PULSE Pilot Progression Levels. Of the eight departments in the pilot, one achieved “PULSE Progression Level III: Accomplished”. Six departments achieved “PULSE Progression Level II: Developing” and one pilot department achieved “PULSE Progression Level I: Beginning”. All of the schools have made significant movement towards the recommendations of Vision and Change relative to a traditional life sciences curriculum. Overall, the response from the eight pilot schools has been positive.