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College Student Retention: Formula for Student Success Alan Seidman (Ed.) Westport, CT: American Council on Education / Praeger, 2005, 364 pages, $49.95 (hardcover)
It is an understatement to suggest that student retention in higher education is an important and relevant topic of inquiry. Pascarella and Terenzini's second volume How College Affects Students (2005) cites over 2,600 studies on the subject. Tinto's theory alone has been cited over 775 times (Braxton, Hirschy, & McClendon, 2004). There is a disconnect, however, between theoretical models of student retention and practical guidelines to inform institutional action. The stated purpose of this volume is to address the gap that exists between what researchers know about the nature of student retention and what practitioners need to know.
Joseph Berger and Susan Lyon provide a comprehensive historical account of retention studies in Chapter 1 from a time of no concern about theoretically-informed research to the establishment of a journal on retention, College Student Retention: Research, Theory, and Practice. Chapter 2 by Thomas Mortenson examines various measures of persistence and cautions readers that variable definitions can impact data analyses and findings. This is a very relevant point as higher education administrators may make adjustments to more accurately reflect institutional retention, yet at the same time they may be tempted to focus on definitions that present the institution in a favorable light.
In chapter 3, John Braxton and Amy Hirschy consider theoretical models of student retention and provide a revision to Tinto's model as it relates to students at residential and commuter campuses. Linda Serra Hagedorn proposes a new student retention formula...