Alverno College is a Roman Catholic, four-year, independent, liberal arts college, historically and still primarily a women's college located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Chartered in 1887 as St. Joseph's Normal School, Alverno became Alverno Teachers College in 1936. It adopted its current name in 1946.

Alverno offers weekday and weekend undergraduate programs, as well as a coeducational Master of Arts program for teachers and business professionals, the Alverno MBA, and a Master of Science in nursing. The Weekend College was opened in 1977 as the first alternative time-frame program in Milwaukee to serve working women in the Milwaukee area. It is still primarily a women's college. The baccalaureate degree programs, residences, etc. are still open only to women; graduate degree programs are open to both women and men. Men who are not pursuing a degree at Alverno can take courses within both the graduate and undergraduate programs.

Alverno has a student-centered approach to education, relying on lengthy and highly personalized performance assessment systems that provide feedback for students to use as they learn and develop. The school offers ability-based education focusing on eight areas of development: communication, analysis, problem solving, valuing, social interaction, developing a global perspective, effective citizenship, and aesthetic response.

This institution has outpaced colleges and universities on the National Survey of Student Engagement, a survey of students nationwide to determine whether they are actively and progressively engaged in their studies. Alverno College is ranked in the top tier of US News & World Report's America's Best Colleges, and in 5 of 8 national categories in their Programs that Work section.[citation needed] Alverno College was awarded the MacArthur Foundation's "Genius Award" in the 1990s,[citation needed] and continues to attract national attention for its work on learning outcomes and accountability of higher education.