Author Bio

John M. Braxton is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College.

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Main Description

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.

The contributors, including Tinto himself, offer a variety of both theoretical and methodological perspectives to the Student Departure Puzzle.

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Reviews

By choosing to rework and examine college student retention, the authors have chosen to bravely confront, revise, and augment the venerated Tinto Interactionist Theory. Unafraid to challenge an icon of higher education that has been well-respected for over twenty-five years, the authors provide new theories and directions more appropriate to the diverse college students found on the campuses of the twenty-first century. --Linda Serra Hagedorn, Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, University of Southern California

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By choosing to rework and examine college student retention, the authors have chosen to bravely confront, revise, and augment the venerated Tinto Interactionist Theory. Unafraid to challenge an icon of higher education that has been well-respected for over twenty-five years, the authors provide new theories and directions more appropriate to the diverse college students found on the campuses of the twenty-first century. --Linda Serra Hagedorn, Center for Higher Education Policy Analysis, University of Southern California

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Table of Contents

heoretical Considerations in the Study of Minority
Student Retention in Higher Education 000
Laura I. Rendn, Romero E. Jalomo, and Amaury Nora

Investigating the Processes of Persistence
Refining Discourse Analysis as a Tool for
Generating New Departure Theory 000
Robert M. Johnson, Jr.

Where Is the Student?
Linking Student Behaviors, College Choice,
and College Persistence 000
Francis K. Stage and Don Hossler

A Cultural Perspective on Student Departure 000
George D. Kuh and Patrick G. Love

Power, Identity, and the Dilemma of College Student Departure 000
William G. Tierney

New Institutional Theory and Student Departure 000
Berta Vigil Laden, Jeffrey F. Milem, and Robert L. Crowson

Conclusion
Reinvigorating Theory and Research on the Departure
Puzzle through Inductive Theory Revision and Other
Research Recommendations 000
John M. Braxton

Index

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Extras

John Braxton is the winnder of the 2009 Chancellor's Cup.