To be well informed about mobilizing the campus for retention, there are a few select titles that should be in your library. Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America’s Public Universities is one of them. Each month we present key readings by authors and researchers who have had an impact on the field of student persistence. We were very impressed by both the scholarly thoroughness and the readability of this book. It is not light reading but thoroughly worthwhile.
Here are some reviews to give you an idea of what you will find between the covers or on your Kindle if you get the ebook.
Crossing the Finish Line is a trenchant and revealing look at the success of America’s public universities in graduating all students. . . . Using a data set of twenty-one flagship institutions and four public state systems, the authors are able to answer heretofore confounding questions about who is graduating from college, when they are doing it, where this is happening, and possible reasons why some students graduate while others do not. — Kolajo Paul Afolabi, Harvard Educational Review
Among the book’s central themes: Large disparities exist in graduation rates by gender, ethnicity, and family income, even after accounting for differences in standardized test scores and high-school preparation. That is not exactly news, but the book grounds those findings in an unusually rich set of data. . . . Mr. Bowen and his colleagues put forward two arguments that are likely to fuel debate for several years. . . . The first argument is that money matters. . . . The second argument is that admissions offices should downplay the SAT and ACT, and instead lean heavily on students’ high school grades. . . . The tuition and SAT debates are, of course, evergreens of education policy, and they might still be running long after everyone who reads this article is dead. But some of the most provocative sections of Crossing the Finish Line have to do with a third, less familiar debate: Why, exactly, are graduation rates stronger at selective colleges? — David Glenn, Chronicle of Higher Education
While the findings might eventually inform students choosing colleges, the more immediate audience is policy-makers and educators. Bowen’s previous data-driven work, on affirmative action and college athletics, has been hugely influential. Again with this project, he and his co-authors gained access to information allowing them to track thousands of individual students over time. The findings paint a grim picture of wasted opportunities, but also suggest even relatively modest efforts to provide students more information and encouragement could substantially ‘increase social mobility and augment the nation’s human capital.’ — Justin Pope, Associated Press
