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  • Innovations in Higher Education: Igniting the Spark for Success ed. by Allan M. Hoffman and Stephen D. Spangehl
  • Brandy D. Smith
Allan M. Hoffman and Stephen D. Spangehl (Eds.). Innovations in Higher Education: Igniting the Spark for Success. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. 200 pp. Cloth: $44.95. ISBN: 978-1-4422-0446-1.

In Innovations in Higher Education: Igniting the Spark for Success, editors Allan M. Hoffman and Stephen D. Spangehl present a panoptic view of innovation, with descriptions of a wide array of progressive programs from multiple facets of the higher education environment, as well as the historical [End Page 128] background detailing their necessity. They define their purpose clearly as bringing "higher education professionals together as part of a broad, national movement to encourage such dynamic effort, to motivate reflection at the precipice, and to promote fresh ideas as part of the ongoing work," largely through "institutional sharing" efforts (p. xv).

Divided into three sections, the book provides views of innovation from multiple vantage points in the higher education ecosystem. The most substantive portion of the book appears in the overarching accounts of key topics that administrators and professionals provide in the first section, which is where I focus this review. Sections 2 and 3 consist primarily of multiple individual case studies, which I summarize more broadly.

Incorporating the work of Michael West and James Farr (1990), the editors define innovation as "the sequence of activities by which a new element is introduced into a social unit, with the intention of benefiting the unit, some part of it, or the wider society" (p. xiv). Hoffman and John Holzhüter, in Chapter 1, further state that innovation is a natural part of evolutionary change, a reaction to environmental stimuli to ensure survival. The authors also incorporate aspects of teleological change when they describe innovations as "internally directed," connoting thoughts of rational initiatives that have been championed by key individuals (p. 4). The chapter continues with an account of the evolution of innovation in higher education consisting of reforms in academe with their accompanying historical contexts.

In addition to editing the volume, Spangehl and Hoffman delve into the origins of innovation as a concept within business and industry in Chapter 2, crediting Joseph Schumpeter with introducing the concept of innovation in the field of economics, then examining how innovation is interpreted in higher education. Critical of the Margaret Spellings-led Commission on the Future of Higher Education report, Spangehl and Hoffman contend that the report did not sufficiently address aspects of innovation in higher education because it focused solely on cost efficiencies and increased productivity, leaving technology as the only contender to have achieved innovation within the sector. Rather, they assert that multiple improvements in processes have already been implemented in many institutions and that these improvements deserve recognition.

Chapters 3 and 4 review accreditation and benchmarking respectively. Spangehl and Henry Lindborg describe the evolution of the accreditation process, including the expansion of options from traditional, regional accreditation to specialized and national accreditation, and cites this evolution as an innovative means of attaining important access goals for the United States. Spangel introduces three different types of benchmarking that, he argues, are important tools for gauging position relative to others and, in optimal situations, promoting innovation.

Chapter 5 describes how innovative technologies are another requirement for educating the shifting population of the United States. William Pepicello, President of the University of Phoenix, contends that our current system focuses primarily on serving the needs of the academy itself (mainly administrators, faculty, and staff) and that innovation can be fostered only in an environment in which the focus is clearly on students and their experiences. Pepicello recognizes that addressing the needs of modern students and integrating technology into their educational experiences are ways to accomplish the large, overarching completion agenda of the United States.

Linda M. Thor, Chancellor of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and former president of Rio Salado College, looks at community colleges through the frame of innovation in Chapter 6. She contends that community colleges, often neglected in innovation literature, may actually be considered as one of the earliest, long-standing innovations within higher...

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