Becoming a Student-Ready College

Reimagining the Culture of Leadership for Student Success A revision to the practical and popular guide, this book asks the crucial question within today's environment, "What's a student-ready college?" Higher education leaders are responsible for preparing their institutions to serve the students they admit in the best way possible. By asking ourselves how we can transform our institutions into student-ready colleges to create a new culture of leadership that is responsive to current challenges and focuses on understanding and utilizing student assets and social capital to achieve shared goals for student success. Becoming a Student-Ready College shows you how. Conversations in higher education tend to focus on defining college readiness for students. Too often, we forget to ask the question from the other side, and we miss important opportunities to develop institutions in ways that can help students thrive. Higher education leaders and educators can better serve today's college students through responsive and redesigned practices and policies. This updated edition features revisions and new material that speak to the social realities of today's incoming students and cover the latest strategies and techniques for connecting with learners to foster equity and success. Leverage existing resources to the benefit of students and deliver the right support at the right time to achieve equity in student outcomes and build on students' assets Design eco-systemic partnerships and support programs that nurture the relationship between the student and the institution Strengthen institutional capacity-building for achieving defined student-ready goals Build shared governance to promote agency and to foster change and collaboration   Becoming a Student-Ready College explores leaders' shared responsibilities in advancing student success and provides practical recommendations for educators at all levels.

Preface xiii About the Authors xvii Acknowledgements xxi Chapter One: The Time Is Now: A Call for Student-Ready Colleges 3 The Quest for College-Ready Students and Redefining Readiness 10 A Profile of Twenty-First-Century Students 16 The Science of Student Readiness 22 The Value of Student-Ready Colleges and the Emerging School-to-Work Economy 25 The Path Forward: Taking Steps to Transformation 29 Chapter Two: Leadership Values and Organizational Culture 33 New Perspectives on Leadership 37 Values and the Student-Ready College 39 Does Collaboration Serve a Greater Good or Is It an End in Itself? 41 Leadership for Grassroots Empowerment 43 Changing Perspective on Educators 47 Exemplary Practice: The University of Wisconsin–Whitewater 47 Positive Vision of Educators 54 Inclusive Professional Development for Everyone Who Teaches 57 Student-Ready Practice of Governance 62 Building Out the Change Effort 64 Exemplary Practice: Alverno College 65 A Pragmatic Approach to Shared Governance 69 A Vision of a Place Ready for Students 72 Conclusion: A Vision to Guide Collaboration 76 Chapter Three: Intentionality by Design to Support Student Success 79 Intentionality by Design: Centering Equity, Diversity, and Belonging 83 Removing Systemic Barriers and Challenges for Students 85 A Caring Educator 87 Embracing a Paradigm Shift 90 A Culture of Belonging 95 Defining Student Success as Learning 97 Promoting Excellence in Student Engagement 99 Charting Your Course of Action 102 Conclusion 103 Chapter Four: Leveraging Ecosystem Partnerships in Support of Student Readiness 107 Engaging the Ecosystem 111 A Critical Survival Instinct: The Opportunistic Self-Awareness of Student-Ready Colleges 115 Three Levers for Establishing and Aligning Impactful Ecosystem Partnerships 120 Student-Centered Symbiosis in Support of Today’s College Students 130 Questions to Consider in Establishing and Aligning Ecosystem Partnerships 133 Conclusion 139 Chapter Five: Educating the Whole Student 143 Whole-Person Leadership and Learning 146 Belief in Student Capacity to Learn as a Genuine and Public Commitment 150 Challenges to Belief in Student Capacity to Learn 154 Addressing Deficit-Mindedness 157 Sites for Action 165 The Wealth That Students Bring 167 Institutional Long Views 168 Leadership Responsive to the Ecosystem 172 Conclusion 178 Conclusion 179 References 187 Index 209