Assessing Conditions to Enhance Educational Effectiveness: The Inventory for Student Engagement and Success (review)

No student affairs professional should need to be convinced that student success in college matters to retention, nor should we be surprised that the key is student engagement. Luckily, the authors did not dwell on this but concisely established a foundation for what this book's value really is—an emphasis on how we can assess our current campus situations and create better conditions for student engagement and thus, student success. The focus of this book is the Inventory for Student Engagement and Success (ISES) which is offered with eight principles to keep in mind: Context is Everything, The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts, Evidence is Essential, Test Prevailing Assumptions, Cast a Wide Net, Use Outsiders to Ask Hard Questions, Focus on What Matters to Success, and Stay the Course. ISES was created out of two large-scale studies familiar to many in the profession—Involving Colleges (Kuh, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 1999) and the recent study of 20 strong-performing schools described in Student Success in College: Creating Conditions that Matter (Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt, & Associates, 2005).

This is not a book just worth reading. Rather, it is a book worth putting into practice. Assessing Conditions to Enhance Educational Effectiveness provides guiding principles, best practices, and assessment methodologies. The authors drew from their experiences in the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project. The methods and principles shared in this book are the policies and practices of institutions with strong records of student success. Since administrators at very few colleges are able to pursue high retention and graduation rates by enrolling the cream of the academically well-prepared, this book offers keys to other strategies for student success and thus, for university and college success.

To get the most out of this book and your efforts to implement its wisdom two things must occur. First, read Student Success in College (2005)by these same authors. The authors clearly stated that a thorough understanding of the content of that book is necessary to use ISES effectively. Student Success in College provides detailed information on how the 20 DEEP schools acted upon their ISES results and is frequently referenced in this book. Second, in order to make the most of the ISES the authors stressed that it is not merely a checklist of institutional practices or questions. ISES is instead a template for identifying, studying, and scrutinizing your institution alongside the ideas described in Student Success in College. In the authors' opinion, it will work if your campus is ready for systematic examination of the quality of its undergraduate education at your school.

The authors organized "campus readiness" around six properties and conditions common to high performing schools that they contend are the foundation for strong levels of student engagement and persistence:

1. 1. A "Living" Mission and "Lived" Educational Philosophy

2. 2. An Unshakeable Focus on Student Learning

3. 3. Environments Adapted for Educational Enrichment

4. 4. Clear Pathways to Student Success

5. 5. An Improvement-Oriented Ethos

6. 6. Shared Responsibility for Educational Quality and Student Success.

The diagnostic queries in chapter 3 help determine the extent to which your campus possesses the six properties and conditions. Chapter 4 offers additional diagnostic queries that address the five clusters of effective educational practices featured in the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE): academic challenges, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experiences, and supportive campus environment. Taken together, the authors believe these conditions contribute to student satisfaction and achievement. The vignettes in chapters 3 and 4 illustrate the above properties and conditions at a variety of schools, but the authors repeatedly reminded us that these must be adapted to your particular institution's culture and circumstances.

If you aspire to enhance the quality of the undergraduate student experience at your college or university, this book can help. Assessing Conditions to Enhance Educational Effectiveness is a blend of...