David Rohrbacher: Inside New College’s Curriculum Turnaround

About this episode

David Rohrbacher discusses the significant improvements in New College of Florida's curriculum and the reforms that led to their rise in academic ratings.

ACTA’s Veronica Bryant welcomes David Rohrbacher, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Professor of Classics at the New College of Florida. NCF made headlines after they skyrocketed from an “F” grade to a “B+” rating in ACTA’s What Will They Learn? Project (WWTL), becoming this year's "most improved school." WWTL assigns letter grades based on the rigor of the core curriculum at over 1,100 American colleges and universities. This improvement was thanks to a total overhaul of their general education program in 2024. Professor Rohrbacher discusses how that change came about and the innovative academic reforms that engage NCF students in substantive, serious coursework.

People in this episode

Host: Veronica Bryant

Guest: David Rohrbacher

Topics covered

• curriculum reform
• higher education
• academic affairs
• general education
• student engagement

Keywords

• New College of Florida
• curriculum turnaround
• academic reforms
• general education program
• ACTA

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: New College of Florida, American Council of Trustees, What Will They Learn? Project

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