Higher education institutions have already begun to see decreasing enrollment numbers, even as higher education enrollment is predicted to drop precipitously starting in 2025. Much of the decrease in enrollment will be driven by demographic trends about which higher education institutions can do little, making the retention of students who do enroll that much more important. Overall retention rates have stagnated and differential retention rates by race and ethnicity have persisted. If higher education institutions, researchers, and policy makers are to improve retention rates, a critical examination of the current state and future directions of retention research is essential. This edited volume begins that examination by addressing several questions: What are the needed directions in theory and research on college student persistence and how do we translate new theory and research into effective practices? Are we asking the right questions, looking in the right places, or trying to apply out-of-date theories to new populations? In short, how can the research community help institutions improve retention in this challenging time?

This book began as a collaboration among top higher education researchers, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) scholars, and the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC). Documenting the challenges and opportunities facing independent colleges in several integral areas, including public purposes and student engagement, The Challenge of Independent Colleges is informed by the reactions of independent campus presidents and provosts who work every day to act on the opportunities presented by private colleges and universities. Each of the nine chapters is written by a leading higher education scholar and frames highly relevant issues for administrators at independent colleges and universities. Topics range from "Access and Affordability" and "Assessment" to "Ensuring Student Success" and "Institutional Strategy." Each chapter is followed by a short, critical reaction written by a provost or president at a CIC member institution. These reactions demonstrate how the information contained in the chapter might be used by institutional leaders to make decisions and what other information on the chapter's topic might be useful for leaders at independent colleges and universities. An important resource for higher education scholars and campus leaders, this text will also be a useful addition to courses on education. Contributors: John M. Braxton, Erin B. Ciarimboli, Cynthia Cogswell, Valerie Crespin-Trujillo, Daniel Custer, Richard Dorman, Roger Drake, Richard Ekman, David Guthrie, Harold V. Hartley III, James C. Hearn, Nicholas Hillman, Jillian Kinzie, Mary B. Marcy, Matthew J. Mayhew, Charlie McCormick, Linda McMillin, Christopher C. Morphew, Julie J. Park, Laura W. Perna, Kevin M. Ross, Marc Roy, Laurie Schreiner, Carolyn J. Stefanco, Barrett Taylor, Stephen J. Vassallo, David J. Weerts, Cynthia A. Wells, Letha Zook

An analysis of the different influences on student learning at the college level. The volume is part of the Peabody Journal of Education series.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

Higher education institutions have already begun to see decreasing enrollment numbers, even as higher education enrollment is predicted to drop precipitously starting in 2025. Much of the decrease in enrollment will be driven by demographic trends about which higher education institutions can do little, making the retention of students who do enroll that much more important. Overall retention rates have stagnated and differential retention rates by race and ethnicity have persisted. If higher education institutions, researchers, and policy makers are to improve retention rates, a critical examination of the current state and future directions of retention research is essential. This edited volume begins that examination by addressing several questions: What are the needed directions in theory and research on college student persistence and how do we translate new theory and research into effective practices? Are we asking the right questions, looking in the right places, or trying to apply out-of-date theories to new populations? In short, how can the research community help institutions improve retention in this challenging time?

More than a quarter of the students who enter four-year institutions and half of those who enter two-year schools depart at the end of their first year. This phenomenon is known as the ""departure puzzle,"" and for years, the most important body of work on student retention has come from sociologist Vincent Tinto. In Reworking the Student Departure Puzzle, leading scholars of the college student experience - including Tinto himself - reevaluate Tinto's interactionalist perspective, which holds that students unable to connect with either the academic or social subsystems of their institutions are likely to leave. Recent critiques of this theory have indicated the need for either its serious revision or the development of a new theory altogether. The contributors to this volume offer a variety of both theoretical and methodological perspectives on student departure, with additional chapters covering minority student retention, the link between college choice and student persistence, and the effect of the classroom experience on the student's choice. The recommendations made here will not only reinvigorate research on this important topic but will also lead administrators to better mana

In "Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching, " higher education researchers John Braxton and Alan Bayer address issues of impropriety and misconduct in the teaching role at the postsecondary level. Braxton and Bayer define and examine norms of teaching behavior: what they are, how they come to exist, and how transgressions are detected and addressed. Do faculty members across various collegiate settings, for example, share views about appropriate and inappropriate teaching behaviors, as they share expectations regarding actions related to research? And what mechanisms are utilized to correct inappropriate behavior on the part of college and university teachers?

The authors' work is based on survey results obtained from faculty members at research universities, liberal arts colleges, and two-year community, junior, and technical colleges. Braxton and Bayer's focus is on undergraduate teaching in four disciplines: biology, history, mathematics, and psychology. In their analyses, the authors examine how individual, disciplinary, and institutional differences influence professorial behavior.

In contrast to the more explicitly understood and enforced rules of conduct in research, the authors find that "teaching" norms are informally defined and observed. They argue that a formal code of ethics for undergraduate teaching would serve the dual purpose of improving undergraduate education and elevating the status of college teaching.

A groundbreaking study of contemporary academe, "Faculty Misconduct in Collegiate Teaching" is required reading for all university and college instructors and administrators