Assessing Conditions to Enhance Educational Effectiveness: The Inventory for Student Engagement and Success,
George D. Kuh, Jillian Kinzie, John H. Schuh, & Elizabeth J. Whitt:
Jossey-Bass, 2005.
Reviewed by Michael Theall, Youngstown State University

From the start, George Kuh and his co-authors stress that effective application of the guidelines in "Assessing conditions…" requires familiarity with their prior work, Student success in college: creating conditions that matter (2005, Jossey Bass). This is an important admonition because the two works, as well as information from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) initiative are intimately interconnected. The more one knows about the pieces, the better one is able to construct the whole, and in sequence, NSSE, DEEP, "Student success…" and "Assessing conditions…" provide both a coherent view of, and approaches to enhancing student success. Indeed, these resources will be of considerable assistance to those willing to not only construct a picture of institutional effectiveness but also (and perhaps of necessity) to de-construct, and re-construct ideas about the effectiveness of their own institutions.

In an earlier review of "Student success…" (NTLF, 14 (6), October, 2005) I said, "One thing not provided (and not truly the province of this book) is a guide for institutional change." (p. 2). "Assessing conditions…" is that guide. It provides both a sufficient conceptual framework for thinking about effectiveness and a rich set of tools for actually doing something about it. Undertaking an examination of effectiveness is not a task for the faint-hearted, for as the authors caution us, the use of ISES (the Inventory for Student Engagement and Success)  requires a solid knowledge base, the use of ISES not as a checklist, but as a "…comprehensive, responsive template for scrutinizing your institution's policies, programs, and practices…", and a willingness to adapt ISES to the unique characteristics of one's institution.

The issues ISES explores are at the heart of an institution's identity, and when a disparity between its "espoused" (formally proclaimed) and "enacted" (operationally practiced) missions arises, there may be difficult questions to ask and answer. For this reason, and again as the authors rightly point out, an examination of effectiveness can not be the task of one person or even a small, dedicated group. It must be an ongoing institutional effort that is embedded in an institutional culture of openness, reflection, and candid dialogue. One definition of "college" is, "a body of persons having a common purpose or common duties." If the common purpose is effectiveness, then the community as a whole must be engaged in defining and achieving it.

The book is organized as follows. It begins with two chapters that 1) outline the reasons why student success is important and 2) discuss how to use the inventory successfully. There are eight "guiding principles" here that bear repeating. They are:

Context is everything;
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts;
Evidence is essential: the more the better;
Test prevailing assumptions;
Cast a wide net;
Use outsiders to ask hard questions;
Focus on what matters to student success; and
Stay the course.

Each principle is described and fit into the larger context of ISES use, but the principles apply to more than the inventory. They generalize nicely to any number of activities such as assessment, institutional research, faculty and other evaluation, and even professional enrichment. In essence, the principles reinforce the important notion that, "best practice" is not the simple adoption of some set of general rules, but rather, the careful integration and adaptation of such rules into a clearly defined and described context for some equally well defined and described purpose.   

Chapters 3 and 4 present inventories of "Diagnostic Queries" and "Vignettes" that deal with specific issues. In Chapter 3, the inventories address six conditions described at length in "Student success…"

A ‘living' mission and ‘lived' educational philosophy;
An unshakeable focus on student learning;
Environments adapted for educational enrichment;
Clearly marked pathways to student success;
An improvement oriented ethos; and
Shared responsibility for educational quality and student success.

Each condition is briefly described, and the description is followed by the "Queries", and then by short examples of the ways in which "DEEP" project institutions dealt with the issues. The queries are numerous and touch on important issues while the vignettes reinforce the importance of institutional differences and uniqueness. Together, they provide readers with a tool set and a view of how others have used it to improve effectiveness. I especially appreciated the final section of this chapter, entitled "Ultimately, it's about the culture" (p. 39). This is a necessary reminder about blending unique characteristics with operational realities and the importance of establishing a consistent and integrated culture or, to use  the authors' term, "invisible tapestry."  Some very useful queries about institutional and student cultures follow this section 

Chapter 4 focuses on the five benchmarks of the NSSE:

Level of Academic Challenge
Active and Collaborative Learning
Student Interaction with Faculty Members
Enriching Educational Experiences
Supportive Campus Environment 

As in the previous chapter, the authors provide descriptions, queries, and vignettes, and with the same useful effect. Readers, especially those whose institutions employ the NSSE will get practical ideas about how to further explore NSSE results and how to use them to effect improvement. Particularly with respect to accreditation, this cycle of investigation, interpretation, revision, and assessment is a powerful tool that fits very well into a self-study or other preparation for an accreditation visit. This is as it should be, because institutions can reap great benefits from blending their various data gathering and review processes rather than treating them as separate and private collections of information for single purposes. Thus, student affairs, admissions, the registrar, assessment, evaluation, alumni affairs, development, first year programs, writing across the curriculum efforts, and other institutional programs can and should work together to develop a data management strategy that allows the opportunity to see both ‘macro' (forest) and ‘micro' (tree) views. When improvement and effectiveness are the targets, then efficient and powerful mechanisms for data management are necessary. An appropriate, relational database of common basic information coupled with specifics derived from each activity's own investigations would be an extremely cost-effective mechanism for improvement purposes.

Chapter five rounds out the array of useful information about processes and tools. In it, the authors discuss using ISES for institutional improvement, and they touch on logistical matters (a convenient Table on pages 62-63 outlines the issues) as well as an interesting and valuable set of "Applications of ISES" (pp 65-78). This last set demonstrates how wide and potentially useful the dialogue can be. When there is a culture of ongoing exploration and candid dialogue, institutions can better understand themselves and their positions; they can consider internal and external pressures with greater clarity; they can react more quickly and effectively; and they can more consistently maintain a focus on their essential missions.

While the authors of "Assessing conditions…" remind us to keep in mind the institutional differences that do exist, they also emphasize the importance of seeking common ground and of  looking for applicable and adaptable examples that can lead to positive change. Higher education has as its basis, a contract with society: to create, present, and use knowledge for the highest purposes. This book helps us to see how diverse institutions can keep that contract while also maintaining their own identities. In the process students and society will be well served.