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Betsy O. Barefoot, John N. Gardner, Marc Cutright, Libby V. Morris, Charles C. Schroeder, Stephen W. Schwartz, Michael I. Siegel, and Randy L. Swing. Achieving and Sustaining Institutional Excellence for the First Year of College. San Francisco: lossey-Bass, 2005. 480 pp. Cloth: $45.00. ISBN: 0-7879-7151-0.
This latest work by Betsy Barefoot, John Gardner, and other distinguished authors is a worthy addition to the first-year experience literature. The authors are both trailblazers and noted researchers in this area, and their current work does not disappoint. It is equally useful to campus leaders in search of possible models and innovations with which to improve their home institutions' firstyear experiences.
The format is elegantly structured and methodologically rigorous. The introductory chapter persuasively argues the need for an in-depth investigation of "institutions of excellence in the first year of college," one that digs deeper than simply describing particular interventions. The following methodology chapter describes the detailed, systematic process used both to identify 13 institutions of excellence and to develop rich case-study analyses of each, each of which is detailed in a chapter of its own (3-15).
The case-study chapters are organized in six parts, with each part dedicated to institutions of a particular type, e.g. two-year...