John E. Roueche

A historical artifact exploring a community college that had transitioned from free for all to a more structured institution trying to make sure students successfully completed degrees and/or transferred to 4 year colleges/universities under a system that both remained open to all comers while upholding high academic standards. The authors attribute the successes of Miami-Dade Community College at that point in time, the mid-1980s, to the leadership of Dr. Robert McCabe. The argument is show more straightforward and the last two chapters are actually very interesting--and full of snippets from the trove of interviews the authors conducted with administrators and staff. The overall read is rather dry and some of the methodology lacks persuasiveness. For instance, the authors ask various classifications to rate the leadership climate on various criteria. The issue here is that the authors have no comparison institutions with which to contrast the results. Perhaps the Miami-Dade results are truly unique, but we have to take their assumption for it. The authors apparently wanted to examine several institutions simultaneously but instead opted to study one in more depth. Losing the breadth of the comparative approach shows in many places. show less