Courageous Learning

“…this book will help returning adults make choices that are right for them.”
—Margaret Spellings, 8th U.S. Secretary of Education

Courageous Learning underscores the urgent need for our nation’s adults to embrace a culture of lifelong learning as a way to help solve our country’s education and employment crisis.

This book offers timely, practical information for adults who want to finish their degree: it includes in-depth profiles of a variety of long-established, adult-serving institutions that offer excellent service and value; autobiographical self-portraits of adult learners who have not only shown uncommon persistence in attaining their degrees, but who have overcome considerable challenges on their journeys to personal and professional success; interviews with a number of the nation’s most outspoken proponents for education reform (including Martha Kanter, current U.S. Under Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, Arthur Levine, president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and Mark Milliron, former Deputy Director for Postsecondary Improvement at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation); and definitions of important concepts such as “credit by exam,” “credit by assessment,” “online learning,” and “regional accreditation.” There is also an appendix section “For Adults Only – 15 Essential Questions” which provides prospective students with an invaluable educational checklist.

John Ebersole is president of Excelsior College in Albany, New York. His career in adult, online and continuing education spans more than 25 years.

William Patrick is an award-winning writer. Currently he is a faculty instructor at Fairfield University’s MFA program.