Reworking the Student Departure Puzzle

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.