Walden III: A Scholarly Novel About College Reform is a hybrid text about college reform that marries fiction with academic scholarship. In this book, Peter Simms, an associate professor of social psychology at fictional Marsden College in Ohio, visits Walden III College in order to learn how the experimental Brooklyn college achieves high retention and graduation rates of poor and unprepared students. The president of Walden III is the rich and mysterious Bryce Davis, the freshman-year college roommate of Simms. Visiting Walden III for a week, Simms learns about the innovative approaches that Walden III takes to college issues, such as curriculum, student housing, developmental education, and governance. Each chapter includes scholarly research on issues important to college reform.

College completion among poor and unprepared students is an issue of global concern. Walden III's integration of fiction and scholarly research to address this issue gives the book a wide reach, appealing to administrators and the public alike. The book can also be used in English composition and literature classes, as well as in a variety of undergraduate and graduate education courses, particularly courses that examine education policy, curriculum, or administration.