Kuh, George D., Kinzie, Jillian, Schuh, John H., Whitt, Elizabeth J., and Associates. (2005). Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter. Reviewed by Erin Bendily, Louisiana State University and A&M College

Kuh, George D., Kinzie, Jillian, Schuh, John H., Whitt, Elizabeth J., and Associates. (2005). Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pp. xx + 348 $38.00   ISBN 0-7879-7914-7 Reviewed by Erin Bendily Louisiana State University and A&M College May 16, 2005 Student Success in College: Creating Conditions That Matter focuses on the policies and practices employed by colleges and universities across the United States associated with student success. The authors’ project on which this book is based adds to a long list of previous efforts to document institutional conditions that are important to student development. Their approach is unique, however, in that they studied twenty high-performing institutions across the country in order to attempt to answer the question, “What does an educationally effective college or university look like at the turn of the 21st century?” Through this book, they describe what these institutions are doing to promote student success and offer guidance for others looking to do the same. In order to uncover what institutions do to promote student development and achievement, the authors embarked on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project. They defined student success as higher-than-predicted graduation rates and better-than-predicted student engagement scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). After selecting a set of schools and talking with more than 2,700 people over a two-year period, they pinpointed six overarching features found to be common to the twenty DEEP colleges and universities. In addition to looking for commonalities, the researchers also set out to identify examples of policies, programs, and practices that other institutions may adopt and adapt to enhance student success on their campuses. The book is organized into four main parts: an explanation of why the authors undertook the DEEP project, a discussion the common features found among the DEEP schools, examples of what those institutions are doing to promote student engagement, and a summary of findings and recommendations for colleges and universities interested in enhancing student success. The authors refrain from using many research notes and references in an effort to make the book reader-friendly and helpful to those seeking to implement the best practices described. The text is also intentionally descriptive, not evaluative, as the goal of the project was to learn what DEEP institutions are doing well, not to uncover their faults. According to the authors, DEEP schools share six features that promote student engagement and persistence: A “living” mission and “lived” educational philosophy; An unshakable focus on student learning; Environments adapted for educational enrichment; Clearly marked pathways to student success; An improvement oriented ethos; and Shared responsibility for educational quality and student success. The authors devote an entire chapter to each of these traits and describe them in great detail, citing specific examples from very diverse campuses. Their illustrations, together with quotes from students, faculty, staff, and administrators who have witnessed the results firsthand, contain powerful evidence that these characteristics are producing positive student outcomes. For instance, “an unshakable focus on student learning” describes what DEEP campuses are doing to engage students in large classes. The authors describe the value of active and collaborative learning that California State University at Monterey Bay officials consider to be an extremely effective educational practice. The university’s provost told the authors, “We don’t do lectures…[we] do active learning, problem solving” (p. 75). One alum commented, “This place understands that most learning is between students….not everyone can learn from lectures. I learned the most when I had to work on group projects in and outside of class” (p. 75). Another student expressed the tremendous support that students gained from one another when they found study partners and got to know their classmates. Faculty found that students engaged in this type of learning environment had actually learned much more than they even realized and performed just as well, if not better, on tests than if they had learned through conventional methods. Another example used by the authors to portray “shared responsibility for educational quality and student success” was partnerships between student and academic affairs divisions. They describe the close relationship between Miami University’s leaders of the academic and student affairs staff and their collaboration in offering a first-year experience course to new students. Kuh and his colleagues observed that the student affairs professionals believe their fundamental mission is the intellectual mission of the university, and as a result, their programs and policies emphasize intellectual growth and change. Therefore, collaboration with faculty was a high priority and a guiding operating principle. Similarly, Alverno College regularly identifies desired co-curricular outcomes that complement the college’s abilities outcomes. Its student services staff members see themselves as “partners in learning in developing a community of learners” and “an extension of the classroom” (p. 66). After discussing the DEEP schools’ various formulas for student success, the authors summarize the institutions’ many complementary policies and practices. They are quick to point out that simply offering certain programs and services does not guarantee student success. Such programs must be high-quality, tailored to the students they are intended to reach, and capable of touching large numbers of students in meaningful way, meaning that they should facilitate and enhance student development. The final chapter focuses on the challenges facing these high-performing institutions and offers recommendations to other colleges and universities that are ready to increase educational effectiveness for the benefit of their students. A major strength of the book is the detail in which institutional policies, programs, and practices are described, as well as the specificity of student outcomes to which they have been linked. From establishing a “living” mission to adapting physical environments for educational benefit, the authors of this book demonstrate ways in which DEEP schools have made student success everyone’s business. In doing so, however, they do not provide readers with the “how-to’s” that some may seek to guide them in fostering change at their institutions. While the specific examples, guiding principles, and recommendations found in this book are extremely helpful in understanding what colleges and universities can do to promote student success, readers must figure out on their own how to start implementing them on their campuses. This book meets an important need among higher education administrators, faculty, student affairs professionals, and students planning to enter this field, who all seek out ways in which they can make a positive impact on the students they serve. First and foremost, it reminds us what college is all about – student development and, ultimately, success. Members of the entire campus community would find value in this book as they read the multitude of examples of how institutions can organize their human, fiscal, and physical resources to focus on student engagement and achievement. Second, the project on which this book focuses allows readers to explore each of the DEEP schools to identify approaches that have been proven to be effective at various types of institutions, such as research-intensive, liberal arts, minority, and private schools. At first many of these approaches seem very familiar, like orientation programs, learning communities, freshman or first-year seminars, student-faculty research, and the use of technology in the classroom. However, the authors time and time again stress that the programs themselves cannot achieve student success. They discourage readers from taking a “checklist approach” to determine if their school is doing what it can to promote student success. For that reason, they conclude with an overview of guiding principles—not specific programs, policies, or practices— that colleges and universities should employ, as well as a discussion of challenges they should expect. A third way in which this book is useful to higher education practitioners is the way in which it is organized. The authors begin with a discussion about student engagement as a key component to student success, introduce their project and the DEEP schools, and then summarize in great detail what those schools are doing to make student success a priority. At the end of each chapter, they remind readers of the important points by providing a “What’s Noteworthy About…” summary of each topic, making it easy to remember guiding principles and to incorporate them into their own campus policies and practices. In summarizing these principles toward the end of the book, the authors organize them into “tried and true,” “sleepers,” and “fresh ideas” categories to distinguish between those ideas that have been widely accepted and proven effective, those that have promised to generate results but lack examples of successful implementation, and those that have not yet received very much attention. One section, however, seemed to be out of place, and that was the overview of each of the DEEP schools found in the second chapter of the book. A brief introduction of the institutions as a whole might have been more appropriate within the text, saving descriptions of individual campuses for inclusion as an appendix. The absence of typical research language, statistics, and references should not suggest any weaknesses about the project on which this work was based. Instead, the lack of those things should be considered a strength, as the “easy-reading” allows campus practitioners to take an interest in what other schools are doing and discover ways in which they, too, can have a greater impact on students. Fourth, the authors very carefully advise readers on how colleges and universities can increase the chances that more of their students perform well and graduate. Their primary recommendation is drawn from the most evident characteristic of the DEEP schools, and that is that “student success must be everyone’s business in order to create the conditions that encourage and support students to engage in educationally productive activities at reasonably high levels” (p. 295). They do not simply encourage readers to adopt each of the best practices used at the DEEP schools; instead, they offer general recommendations that in one way or another have implications for just about all members of the campus community. They include: Featuring student success in the institution’s enacted educational mission and purpose; Making talent development a central tenet in the institution’s operating philosophy; Cultivating an ethic of positive restlessness; Putting money where it way make a difference in student engagement; Featuring diversity inside and outside of the classroom; Attracting, socializing, and rewarding competent people; Encouraging collaboration across functional lines and between the campus and the community; Laying out the path to student success; and Reculturing the institution for student success. Most of these recommendations echo what higher education researchers have been saying for years, and at first glance, it appears as though the authors have little new to add to this growing challenge. Nevertheless, colleges and universities need to be frequently reminded of the human financial resources required to carry out educationally effective programs, the need for academic and student affairs to work collaboratively, the importance of emphasizing student success in their institution’s stated and enacted mission, and developing (and sustaining) a culture of student improvement and success. What distinguishes these recommendations from those found in related literature is that the authors make them come alive. They direct readers to colleges and universities around the nation where these guiding principles are being put into action, and where students are reaping the rewards.