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

by Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albertine, Michelle Asha Cooper

Boost student success by reversing your perspective on college readiness The national conversation asking "Are students college-ready?" concentrates on numerous factors that are beyond higher education's control. Becoming a Student-Ready College flips the college readiness conversation to provide a new perspective on creating institutional value and facilitating student success. Instead of focusing on student preparedness for college (or lack thereof), this book asks the more pragmatic question of what are colleges and universities doing to prepare for the students who are entering their institutions? What must change in an institution's policies, practices, and culture in order to be student-ready? Clear and concise, this book is packed with insightful discussion and practical strategies for achieving your ambitious student success goals. These ideas for redesigning practices and policies provide more than food for thought—they offer a real-world framework for real institutional change. You'll learn: To truly become student-ready, educators must make difficult decisions, face the pressures of accountability, and address their preconceived notions about student success head-on. Becoming a Student-Ready College provides a reality check based on today's higher education environment.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Leadership, Teaching, College, Professional Development

188 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success, by Tia Brown McNair, Susan Albertine, Michelle Asha Cooper, Nicole McDonald, and Thomas Major, is published by Association of American College and Universities (AAC&U). The AAC&U has done some important things for universities: among these, considering the nature of general education, identifying high-impact practices, and predicting student success. The phrase "student-ready college" – a play on college-ready students – has the potential to be one of those important things. This book, however, is uneven in its writing and thus shoots itself in its foot more times than not.

Student-Ready College is short, but some chapters are so abstract and jargon-filled that they are barely readable. McNair and her colleagues ask, for example, What are the essential understandings and preconditions that enable campus leaders to support their students' success by leveraging the ecosystem that surrounds their campuses? (Loc. 1344). What does that even mean? (Later in the clearer part of that chapter, it is apparent that they were talking about partnering with the agencies and businesses in the community to get students the financial, medical, and employment support students need to be successful.)

I don't disagree with Student-Ready College's thesis. We do need to consider how we meet our students' needs rather than expecting that they will meet ours. When their prose is clear and tidy, as it can be, they offer useful examples of student-ready colleges and suggestions about what colleges can do to develop their own programs. They describe successful handouts, statements on HR pages, and partnerships with external agencies. They attempt to tip our world on end: Students and faculty and institutions look different through a student-ready lens. Governance looks different. Community engagement looks different. Educator responsibilities look different (Loc. 2023).

McNair and her colleagues are most successful when they do provide clear ways of perceiving higher education differently.

[Jason Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

Vapid. Everything about this book is terrible.

[Stephen Brooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s hard to rate this book.
On the one hand, it’s an urgent call to reconsider educating adults on their own terms, as opposed to wishing that colleges’ applicants shared a base set of characteristics upon which all instructors and staff can count.
On the other hand, the book is a little out-of-date (evidence now exists for the effectiveness of a number of its proposals), passages warranting citation are left without citations and the copy editing is haphazard.

[Iris Burks · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book demonstrates the need for universities to investigate their own role in student success (or lack thereof).

[Bonnie Irwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone working in higher education should read this little book. While it does not have all the answers, the authors raise important question that make the reader think. Have we really organized our campuses and our attitudes around the success of our students? The book is written primarily for administrators, but all faculty and staff can learn something here. "How are institutions preparing all students [my emphasis] for the kind of challenges they will confront in life, work, and citizenship?" "How can leaders make the most of creative tensions in the community?" "What language predominates in campus discussions of students and their capacity to learn? Is the language compassionate? Is it frank and genuine? Is it consistently hopeful?"

[Dawn Archey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The key premise of this book is that there NEVER was a time in American History when all students who went to University arrived "ready," therefore, instead of yearning for golden days that never existed, universities should take action to be ready for the students we have and are going to have.

The book is action oriented, full of concrete advise.

This book is mostly aimed at University Administrators at the dean level or higher. However, as an assistant department chair and faculty member, I also gained valuable insights.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 rounded down. An easy read with some good ideas, encouraging educators to be "student ready" for the students they have today rather than blaming students for being unprepared/deficit minding. Raises some questions to consider while leading your campus through change. I would have liked to read more examples of institutions and what they are doing to change and/or initiatives to meet the needs of today's students.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would give between 4-5 stars. I want to bookmark this one to read again in the future stages of career, as it is primarily directed towards leaders and institutional change-makers. I loved the ideas they presented and the way they suggested reframing a mindset. I appreciated the guided questions, actionable steps, and case-studies that helped to clarify and "do the work" along the way. I think it has impacted how I approach my work and want to influence the system around me.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raises many good questions about how we should approach students in higher ed; Case study examples are nice, but they often feel too short; Not much on the "how" to make these changes; Book badly needs an editor - page 110 is literally the same paragraph twice in a row - as many of the points repeat themselves endlessly

[Xavier University Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

Becoming a Student-Ready College is a helpful book for reflecting on how your university serves all its students and how well we meet our students where they're at. The ideas presented in this book are powerful, but I found it particularly helpful as a starting point for person reflection about Xavier itself.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the premise of this book: instead of complaining about blaming students for being unprepared, colleges need to change to be ready for all students. However the book was disappointing. It was repetitive with lots of abstract language and few practical suggestions.

[Jocelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lightweight discussion of a heavy hitting concept.

[Lori Bree · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content was good, but the writing style wasn’t.

[Tishly Herrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book gave do many good ideas regarding beginning student ready. Reading this makes me want to work for an institution engaging in this work.

[Alyssa Klenotich · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good content, however I felt a lot of the message became repetitive.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this book has great ideas, that’s mostly where it ends. The authors talk at length about the same concepts over and over again, but few practical suggestions are given on how to implement these ideas. We also get the gist of the book within the first few pages. Chapters extrapolating on main themes do little to actually say more on the topic; this book is very, very repetitive.

I was also dismayed by various statements the authors make without giving evidence or by providing evidence that is now outdated. They make the point that the pandemic changed education, but little of their research is from post-pandemic sources. They make broad statements that left me thinking, is that really how it is? Is that really how most people see the issue? And they then don’t back these statements up. This book felt half baked and frustrated me for the writing and content rather than in regard to the problem the authors are trying to solve.

[La'Tonya Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think it's important to know who this book is written for, otherwise one might jump in expecting concrete details and lots of specific examples. For starters, the target audience is high level academic administrators (e.g., presidents and provosts) or the people that influence them. Not really faculty or front line staff. While I think nearly anyone can benefit from the material, the ideas presented are largely theoretical and abstract. But the authors are clear and direct writers. And they take a very firm stance basically about institutions meeting students where they are. I would also argue that this book may be more relevant to those teaching at two year rather than four year schools. Nevertheless, I found some helpful frameworks, especially as I think more about getting institutional buy-in for first-gen students.

[Gregory Linton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small book encourages colleges and universities to become focused on meeting the needs of today's students. It offers key qualities or characteristics of institutions that can be effective at educating today's students. The book provides broad principles rather than specific details or nuts and bolts, but it does provide case studies and examples to illustrate how the principles can be put into practice. I found the bibliography to be helpful.

[Teresa Raetz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another higher education book that confuses using a lot of dissertation buzzwords and generalities with having something new to say. The book stays at a very broad, general level. There are lots of "what" and no how, why, or even who. There is very little research cited even though the authors frequently say how much research there is on the topic. I actually stopped reading it. This ground has already been covered much better by George Kuh and others.