Every source cited in the Q3 framework and Q2 literature review, plus the orbit of recommended-but-uncited reading. Each entry carries the full APA reference (one-click copy), where it appears in the papers, its synopsis and argument, strengths and weaknesses, the work it does in the dissertation, what it reads with — and a drill question for self-testing. Use Quiz Me for flashcard rounds across the whole deck.
The pairs and clusters most likely to blur under pressure. Open before any meeting where citations come up.
Klein-Collins (2010) — Fueling the Race. Sole author. The 48-institution, 62,475-student outcomes study (sole author; verified June 2026). CAEL. Cite for: completion evidence at scale and the 2010 record of PLA-as-transfer-credit coding.
Klein-Collins et al. (2020) — The PLA Boost. Five authors (Klein-Collins, Taylor, Bishop, Lane, Leibrandt). The 72-institution follow-up. CAEL & WICHE. Cite for: the current outcomes evidence and the CPL definition.
Soler et al. (2024) — The National Landscape of CPL. Klein-Collins is second author here. ACE & CAEL. A state/system policy scan, not an outcomes study. Cite for: policy variation across states.
Rule of thumb: 2010 and 2020 are evidence; 2024 is landscape. Rebecca Klein-Collins is CAEL’s research lead, so her name appears across all three — the year is the differentiator.
AACRAO (2024) — Enhancing Accessibility and Inclusion: The 2024 Landscape of CPL. An institutional survey: 399 campuses, the 82% provision figure, the transfer paradox.
Soler et al. (2024) — The National Landscape of CPL. A state and system policy scan. One counts campuses; the other reads policy. The titles nearly collide; the units of analysis do not. A trap inside the trap: ERIC and some references credit the AACRAO report to W. Kilgore, but the published PDF names no individual author — AACRAO (2024) is the correct citation.
ACE (2025) — Build America, the Lilly Endowment report. Georgia and Indiana focus groups on military CPL. Source of the “30 hours” quote and the registrar findings. This is the citation that carries empirical weight in both papers.
ACE is also co-publisher of Soler et al. (2024). Same organization, two different documents — never cite “ACE (2025)” for landscape claims or “Soler” for the Georgia focus groups.
Hallett & Ventresca (2006) — the founding statement, via Gouldner. Source of “populated with people…” (p. 213).
Hallett (2010) — the empirical exemplar: one urban school, symbolic power, recoupling, “turmoil” (p. 52). Your single-case warrant.
Hallett & Hawbaker (2021) — the mature program statement: coupling configurations, the case against logics, emergent vs. post-hoc sensemaking.
Cleckner & Hallett (2022) — encyclopedia entry; use for compact definitions only, never as the load-bearing citation.
Weick (1976) — loose coupling (educational organizations). Orton & Weick (1990) — the reconceptualization: loose coupling as dialectical, to be observed not assumed. Weick (1988) — enacted sensemaking; source of “enact the environments which constrain them” (p. 305). Weick (1995) — the sensemaking book. Coupling cites = 1976/1990; sensemaking cites = 1988/1995.
1988 — How Colleges Work: the four governance frames. 1989 — the senate article: latent functions, the deep freeze, the conservator. 2003 — hard vs. soft governance; “most of the important decisions… occur outside the formal system” (p. 11). The deep freeze is 1989, not 2003 — an easy slip.
Kezar & Eckel (2004) — the governance synthesis; source of the micro-governance gap and “paucity of empirical research” (p. 376). Kezar (2006) — the theory-use chapter; cite only for the methodological point about being explicit with theory. Eckel (2000) — the hard-decisions study; kitchen cabinets, the coin of the governance realm, and the continuing-education jurisdiction example.
Cohen, March, & Olsen (1972) is the garbage can. Cohen et al. (2025) is the NSC Some College, No Credential report. Different Cohens, fifty-three years apart.
Lane (2007) — oversight; Lane & Kivisto (2008) — the principal–agent chapter; and P. Lane is a different Lane inside the Klein-Collins et al. (2020) author list.
Browning (2018) is the dissertation (K. F.); Browning (2020) is the article drawn from it (K.). Prefer the article; keep the dissertation for the richer faculty-perception detail.