Reworking the student departure puzzle / edited by John M. Braxton.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Introduction: reworking the student departure puzzle / John M. Braxton -- The viability of academic integration as a central construct in Tinto's interactionalist theory of college student departure / John M. Braxton and Leigh A. Lien -- Economic influences on persistence reconsidered: how can finance research inform the reconceptualization of persistence models? / Edward P. St. John [and others] -- A psychological model of college student retention / John P. Bean and Shevawn Bogdan Eaton -- College climate and the Tinto model / Leonard L. Baird -- Linking learning and leaving: exploring the role of the college classroom in student departure / Vincent Tinto -- Optimizing capital, social reproduction, and undergraduate persistence: a sociological perspective / Joseph B. Berger -- Theoretical considerations in the study of minority student retention in higher education / Laura I. Rendon, Romero E. Jalomo, and Amaury Nora -- Investigating the processes of persistence: refining discourse analysis as a tool for generating new departure theory / Robert M. Johnson Jr. -- Where is the student?: linking student behaviors, college choice, and college persistence / Francis K. Stage and Don Hossler -- A cultural perspective on student departure / George D. Kuh and Patrick G. Love -- Power, identity, and the dilemma of college student departure / William G. Tierney -- New institutional theory and student departure / Berta Vigil Laden, Jeffrey F. Milem, and Robert L. Crowson -- Conclusion: reinvigorating theory and research on the departure puzzle / John M. Braxton.

More than a quarter of the students who enter four-year institutions and half of those who enter two-year schools depart at the end of their first year. This phenomenon is known as the "departure puzzle," and for years, the most important body of work on student retention has come from sociologist Vincent Tinto. The contributors, including Tinto himself, offer a variety of both theoretical and methodological perspectives to the Student Departure Puzzle.