A Review of the Theories Developed to Describe the Process of College Persistence and Attainment

A review of the peer-reviewed papers in the top higher education journals in the last 20 years suggests that the field is relying heavily on Tinto’s (1993, Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press) theory of student departure. The fact that there is limited empirical support for Tinto’s theory (Braxton, Sullivan, & Johnson, 1997, Handbook of Theory and Research, 12, 107–164) suggests the need to expand the theoretical grounding of the field, and use a broader set of theories or conceptual frameworks. The main objective of this study is to provide a thorough review of the different theories and conceptual frameworks that have been developed and/or applied in education, economics, sociology, and psychology to study the process of college persistence and attainment. The chapter contributes to the literature by providing an in-depth description of the theories that have been developed in other social sciences in the last four decades. This review would hopefully encourage scholars and graduate students in the field to expand the theoretical grounding and as a result address a broader set of research questions that need to be explored to gain a better understanding of the complexities of the process of college persistence and attainment.