Engaging Community Colleges A First Look

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Engaging Students California and the Nation
October 2, 2008
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Engaging StudentsCalifornia and the Nation

• Our Goals
• To share CCSSE 2008 results for California and
  the nation
• To focus our discussion on strengthening student
  success in California colleges
• To share examples of promising practices across
  the nation and

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What Matters Most for Student Success?

• Christine McLean, Senior Associate
• Community College Survey of Student
  Engagement/CCSSE
• The University of Texas at Austin
• Sam Echevarria, Senior Research Associate
• Community College Survey of Student
  Engagement/CCSSE
• The University of Texas at Austin

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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STAND UP

• if youve ever attended a community college.
• if you graduated from a community college.
• if you earned a degree while attending college
  part-time and working at least 20 hours per week.
• if you ever stopped out of college for any
  reason.
• if you were the first in your family to attend
  college.

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STAND UP

• if you ever had to choose between buying
  groceries and buying books for your college
  classes.
• if English is your second language.
• if in the course of your college daily life you
  found yourself in the minority (race, class,
  gender) in most situations.
• if you can name an individual who made a
  significant difference in your college education.

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• Test Your Community College IQ!
• What percentage of community college students
  attend part-time?
• Answer 63 (22 at 4-year colleges)

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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• Test Your Community College IQ!
• What percentage of community college students
  plan to earn a degree?
• Answer 79 (More than 70 cite transferring as
  a primary or secondary goal)

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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• Test Your Community College IQ!
• What percentage of community college students
  plan to earn a certificate?
• Answer 48

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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• Test Your Community College IQ!
• Yetwhat percentage of community college students
  earn an associate degree or certificate 6 years
  after entering college?
• Answer 25
• Andwhat percentage of community college students
  actually transfer?
• Answer 25

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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• Test Your Community College IQ!
• Whats the national dropout rate (not returning
  for sophomore year) for students attending public
  two-year colleges?
• Answer 48 (compared to 32 for public
  four-year colleges)

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Learning from CCSSE Results
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CCSSE Listening to Students

• 6 years
• 628 colleges
• 750,000 students
• 49 states, British Columbia, Nova Scotia,
  Marshall Islands

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CCSSE A Tool for Improvement

• CCSSE helps us
• Assess quality in community college education
• Identify and learn from good educational practice
• Identify areas in which we can improve

• CCSSE data analyses include a three-year cohort
  of participating colleges.
• The 2008 CCSSE Cohort includes more than 343,000
  community college students from 585 community and
  technical colleges.

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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CCSSE Benchmarking and Reaching for Excellence

• The most important comparison where you are
  now, compared with where you want to be.

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CCSSE Benchmarks California
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CCSSE Nation and California

• English as a Second Language
• 14 and 22
• Developmental/remedial reading
• 27 and 35
• Developmental/remedial writing
• 33 and 41
• Developmental/remedial math
• 46 and 46
• Study Skills
• 33 and 40
• College Orientation program or course
• 39 and 44

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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CCSSE Nation and California

• Working-Full Time
• 38 and 43
• Caring for Dependents
• 29 and 32
• Academically unprepared
• 19 and 22
• Lack of Finances
• 46 and 43
• Transfer to a 4-year college or university
• 49 and 58

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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CCSSE Nation and California

• Is English your native (first) language?
• 87 and 66

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Active and Collaborative Learning

• Survey items that contribute to this benchmark
  include experiences such as
• Asking questions in class
• Making class presentations
• Working with other students in and out of class
• Discussing ideas from classes outside of class

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Active and Collaborative Learning

• What percentage of California students report
  that they very often or often worked with
  other students on projects during class?
• 50
• What percentage of California students report
  that they very often or often worked with
  other students on projects outside of class?
• 22

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Student Effort

• Survey items associated with this benchmark
  include experiences such as
• Preparing multiple drafts of papers
• Integrating ideas from various sources
• Coming to class unprepared
• Using tutoring services, skill labs, or computer
  labs
• Hours per week spent studying

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Student Effort

• What percentage of FULL-TIME STUDENTS report that
  they spend FIVE or FEWER hours per week preparing
  for class (studying, reading, writing,
  rehearsing, doing homework, or performing other
  activities related to your program)?
• National
• 37
• California
• 33

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Academic Challenge

• Survey items associated with this benchmark
  include experiences such as
• Working harder than you thought you could to meet
  an instructors expectations
• Whether coursework emphasizes synthesis and
  analysis as opposed to memorization
• The number of assigned textbooks and papers

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Academic Challenge

• What percentage of California FULL-TIME STUDENTS
  reported writing FOUR OR FEWER papers or reports
  of any length during the school year?
• California
• 26

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Academic Challenge

• Key Findings All CCSSE 2008 cohort colleges
• Full-time students who wrote papers or reports of
  any length during the year

Source CCSSE 2008 data.
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Student-Faculty Interaction

• The items used in this benchmark include
  experiences such as
• Using e-mail to communicate with an instructor
• Discussing grades, assignments, and career plans
  with an instructor
• Receiving prompt feedback from instructors
• Working with instructors on activities other than
  coursework

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California Students on Student-Faculty
Interactions
Often/Very Often Full-Time Part-Time 52 46
47 36 31 19 19 13 56 52 10 7

• Student-Faculty Interactions
• E-mail
• Discussed Grades
• Career Plans
• Discussed Ideas
• Prompt Feedback
• Other than Coursework

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A Good Class
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Support for Learners

• The items that contribute to this benchmark
  include
• Whether the college provides the support students
  need to succeed
• How much the college helps students cope with
  nonacademic responsibilities
• Students use of academic advising/planning and
  career counseling services

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Support for Learners

• What are your Most Important Services?
• How often do students use them?
• How satisfied are students with those services?

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(No Transcript)
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Students Know When Theyre Supported
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What Matters Most for Student Success?
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Student Engagement Matters

• 20 years of research on undergraduate student
  learning, persistence and success
• 1 year of really cool research in the community
  college field CCSSE Validation Study
• 1 year of studying the power of Relationships

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Student Engagement is

• the amount of time and energy students invest in
  meaningful educational practices

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Student Engagement

• Institutional practices
• Student behaviors
• Highly correlated with student learning and
  retention

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Student Engagement

• Its unlikely to happen by accident.
• It has to happen by design.

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Student Engagement

• Students are more likely to persist and learn if
  they
• Navigate through college systems, processes and
  procedures
• Make a connection between now and their future
  (setting goals)
• Are active engaged learners

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Early Engagement

• Community colleges typically lose about half of
  their students prior to the students second
  college year.

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Early Engagement

• Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE)
• 22 Pilot Colleges in Fall 2007-13,300 respondents
• MetLife Foundation initiative Starting Right
  Focus Groups
• National administration in Fall 2008 93
  colleges

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A Good Start
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• Entering Student Attitudes Expectations
• Focus Group Findings
• All entering students said they are confident
  they will remain in school and achieve their
  academic goals.

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• Entering Student Attitudes Expectations
• Focus Group Findings
• Most students said the only thing that might make
  it difficult to achieve their goals would be
  balancing their time among school, family and
  work commitments
• Yet in the SENSE survey, only 35 reported taking
  a course where they are learning how to
  prioritize and manage their time.

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• Entering and younger students are less likely to
  
• Use academic advising/planning
• Traditional age students friends
• Non-traditional age students faculty advisors
• Go to a tutor
• Use skill labs
• Seek financial aid advising

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Relationships

• Students are more likely to persist and learn if
  they
• Establish meaningful relationships with peers
• Establish meaningful relationships with faculty
  and staff
• Feel connected to the college

Community College Survey of Student Engagement
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Relationships

• What is the single most important factor that
  keeps students in school?
• YOU!

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Relationships and Support for Success
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Questions

• What are a few things, in your role at the
  college, that you learned from your college's
  CCSSE results? 
• In what ways have you worked to improve student
  engagement in your role at the college?
• In what ways is your college working to improve
  student engagement in the classroom? 
• In what ways is your college working to engage
  students outside of the classroom? 
• Which Benchmark helps you, in your role at the
  college, to consider how you can help to improve
  student engagement? 

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Thank you!