Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success

This book proposes a new paradigm for postsecondary educators interested in student success by addressing an apparent disconnect between the expectations of many educators and the reality of their circumstances. While expectations often presume the privilege of working only with ideal, perfectly prepared students, that has never been the reality for educators. The book lays bare the myth of college-ready students as the norm and calls for a paradigm shift that requires colleges to create systems and environments that support student success and equitable outcomes, both central themes in the book. The authors support their argument with historical evidence of the ever-changing and significant variations in the level of student preparedness over generations, for example, the impact of the G.I. Bill of 1944 and other legislation that expanded access to higher education.Chapter 1 reminds readers of the calls for accountability in higher education, perhaps an attempt to motivate educators to reexamine their role in student success. The authors then share some limitations of this “college-readiness” paradigm, like how it ignores the transformative potential of college and relies on a student-deficits framework. The authors acknowledge this will take more than minor changes and pivots. They appeal for transformational practices and attitudes but concede that obstacles like educators with deeply held but outdated approaches may continue to ask students rather than institutions to conform.Chapter 2, like all chapters, begins with guiding questions. In this case, the questions focus on planning and explore the roles of values, leadership, and a transformative vision. The reader is invited to reflect on their own leadership and values vis-à-vis equity. Their approach celebrates the inherent creative tension in inclusive systems. Collaboration is presented as indispensable but not the end goal, as often seen in the literature. Two principles organize the authors’ ideas about leadership values. First, anyone can contribute to teaching and leadership outside traditional structures; and, second, even formal channels, like governance, can be engaged to improve student readiness. Equity is presented as a prerequisite for both principles, which are explored with several exemplars and helpful suggestions. Taken together, the ideas presented in this chapter can stimulate action and confidence in readers.Chapter 3 introduces the concept of postsecondary education as an ecosystem containing interdependent entities whose successes and failures are inherently connected. The chapter does an excellent job spotlighting how the prioritization of efficiency and effectiveness can dominate reward systems, pushing out meaningful values-based but less easily measured outcomes like relationships. A Campus Spotlight celebrates one college’s promising practices geared to create a student-ready college but could be more helpful if it included more about how, rather than what, the campus does. The chapter highlights the value of a clear vision by providing compelling arguments for defining lofty terms found in mission statements (e.g., student success, equity, justice, and high impact practices [HIPs], which are active learning strategies that contribute to student success) in terms that focus on what students learn instead of retention rates. The chapter ends with six elements to help readers prioritize student learning over efficiency, despite the pressure to do otherwise. The elements focus on ways the reader can improve clarity and accountability and include articulating clear and equity-centered definitions grounded in data, defining actions and timelines, identifying content and process goals, and using appropriate measures.Chapter 4 offers suggestions about leveraging factors like the ecosystem and interpersonal strategies of the student population. The chapter suggests some general ways that student-ready colleges can nurture student success (e.g., actively participating in the web of interconnected organizations of the ecosystem). Readers then examine how an institutional culture can generate beneficial ecosystem partnerships and networks using drivers identified by the Education Design Lab. Not only can readers find inspiration in the ecosystem and biology analogies presented in this chapter, but several pages of useful questions in bullet format are offered to help focus efforts to align ecosystem partnerships.In chapter 5, the authors focus on the whole student while calling for faith in students in general. It includes resources like other authors and methods to prepare readers for challenging conversations about equity and a reminder that systemic transformation requires transformative action beyond dialogue. Challenges include deficit mindedness, a bias against student capacity manifesting in statements like “students don’t read” or “faculty can’t teach such underprepared students.” Flipping orthodoxies and deconstructing bias are explained, with examples, as ways to oppose deficit mindedness, alongside examples demonstrating belief in the whole student and the leadership it requires. The authors close with guiding questions to help readers reflect on strategies for advancing student readiness while reminding us that a student-ready college requires more than top-down proclamations or rhetoric; it requires a system-wide commitment. These guiding questions and the examples can provide a road map for the reader interested in leading such a deep examination of their institutional or personal practices.The book successfully presents a need for a shift in thinking and demonstrates the value of becoming a student-ready college. This transformation rests upon the values held by leadership and institutional culture. The need for everyone at all levels of the institution to embrace and take action to become a student-ready college is a compelling and recurring theme, as is the significance of equity. This book is for all current and aspiring campus leaders and other professionals interested in institutional effectiveness. Even the casual reader can find value in the many actionable strategies found in each chapter’s guiding questions and the generous number of recommended titles and other resources provided in every chapter.