Essential Elements of Engagement

1
Essential Elements of Engagement High
Expectations and High Support
2008 Findings
2
CCSSE Overview
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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

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CCSSE A Tool for Community Colleges

• 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 institutions
  in 48 states, British Columbia, the Marshall
  Islands, and Nova Scotia.

5
CCSSE A Tool for Accountability

• CCSSE
• Provides reliable data on issues that matter
• Reports data publicly
• Is committed to using data for improvement
• CCSSE opposes using its data to rank colleges.

ranking
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CommunityCollege Students
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Giving Voice to Students
26-year-old single mother of a 6-year-old son and
a 4-year-old daughter
Carolina Villamar (left) and classmate Luisa
Castano.
Im a divorced, single mother. I can and need to
do this. If I fall down, my kids are going to
fall down. If Im standing, they will be there,
right beside me.
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Giving Voice to Students
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Giving Voice to Students
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Giving Voice to Students
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Giving Voice to Students
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Faculty Members Views of Students
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Faculty Members Views of Students
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Community College Students Contendwith Competing
Priorities
Most Students Are Enrolled Part-Time
Most Students Work
Source IPEDS, fall 2006.
Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
15
Community College Students Plans

• When asked when they plan to take classes at this
  college again, 23 of students had no plan to
  return or were uncertain about their future plans.

Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
16
Barriers to Returning to College

• How likely is it that the following issues would
  cause you to withdraw from class or from this
  college?

Percentage of students responding likely or very
likely
In addition, 49 of respondents say that transfer
to a four-year college or university is a likely
or very likely reason they would not return to
this college. Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
17
Most and Least Engaged Students
This analysis does not include students who hold
degrees. Source 2008 CCSSE
Cohort data.
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CCSSE Benchmarks
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CCSSE Benchmarks for Effective Educational
Practice

• The five CCSSE benchmarks are
• Active and Collaborative Learning
• Student Effort
• Academic Challenge
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Support for Learners

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CCSSE Benchmarks for Effective Educational
Practice
CCSSE Example Community College 2008 Benchmark
Scores
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Benchmarking and Reaching for Excellence

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

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Reaching for Excellence at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college. Slide and discussion
  ideas include
• Show how your college is reaching for excellence
  by discussing how your college is using CCSSE
  data to better understand and improve its
  practices.
• Compare yourself to the national average (the 50
  mark).
• Measure overall performance against performance
  by your least-engaged student groups.
• Gauge your work in the areas your college
  strongly values (e.g., the areas identified in
  your strategic plan).
• Contrast where you are with where you want to be.

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Building aCulture of Evidence
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Start with the Truth

• We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by
  each experience in which we really stop to look
  fear in the face. We must do that which we
  think we cannot.
• Eleanor Roosevelt

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Understand the Facts

• 21 of part-time students versus 32 of full-time
  students say they often or very often talk about
  career plans with an instructor or advisor.
• 36 of part-time students versus 23 of full-time
  students say they never have those conversations.

Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
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Understand the Facts

• Part-time students are less likely to
• Work with other students on projects during class
• Make class presentations
• Participate in a community-based project as part
  of a course

27
Share the Facts andAct on What Youve Learned

• Take nothing on its looks take everything on
  evidence. Theres no better rule.
• Charles Dickens (18121870) Great
  Expectations

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Using CCSSE Results
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The Inarguable Fundamentals

• The center of community college work is student
  learning, persistence, and success.
• Every program, every service, every academic
  policy is perfectly designed to achieve the exact
  outcome it currently produces.

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Using CCSSE To Assess, Inform, and Act

• Identify key areas (e.g., the areas identified in
  your strategic plan).
• Identify survey items that address these
  priorities.

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Using CCSSE To Assess, Inform, and Act

• Start with the benchmarks.
• Look at individual survey items.
• Disaggregate the data and identify the least
  engaged student groups.

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Using CCSSE To Assess, Inform, and Act

• Involve the college community.
• Design strategies and set targets.
• Share the data and plans to address them.

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Using CCSSE To Assess, Inform, and Act

• Track progress by measuring outcomes.
• Scale up efforts that are working. Modify or
  discontinue those that are not.
• Repeat.

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High Expectations and High Support
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High Expectations and High Support

• You cant have one without the other
• Students do best when expectations are high and
  they receive support that helps them achieve at
  high levels.
• Colleges must set the standard and do so
  deliberately, clearly, and consistently. They
  also must provide the support financial aid,
  advising, academic support, and so on that
  makes the high standard accessible to all
  students.

36
High Expectations and High Support

• You cant have one without the other
• There is no great secret to successful retention
  programs, no mystery which requires unraveling.
  Though successful retention programming does
  require some skill and not an inconsiderable
  amount of effort, it does not require
  sophisticated machinery.
• Tinto, V. (n.d.). Student Success and the
  Building of Involving Educational Communities.
  Syracuse, NY Syracuse University, School of
  Education.

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2008 CCSSE Findings by Benchmark
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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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Key Findings 2008 CCSSE Cohort
Student Effort Preparing for Class and
Assignments
Full-time students who
Often or very often prepared two or more drafts
of a paper or assignment before turning it in
Often or very often worked on a paper or project
that required integrating ideas or information
from various sources
Always came to class prepared
Spent 10 or fewer hours per week preparing for
class
This survey item asks students how often they
come to class without completing readings or
assignments. Never responses are reverse coded
here. Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
Spent at least 21 hours per week preparing for
class
40
Student Effort at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college. Slide and discussion
  ideas include
• Provide your colleges data for survey items
  related to student effort, and discuss the
  results. Provide examples of what you plan to do
  with the information (for example, making skills
  labs more accessible during nontraditional
  hours).
• Compare your colleges performance on student
  effort with the performance of a group of similar
  colleges (without naming the colleges, of course)
  or to the full CCSSE population.
• Show your colleges benchmark chart, and discuss
  your results for student effort as they compare
  with your results for other benchmarks.
• Give examples of initiatives that your college
  has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen
  student effort on your campus(es).

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Student Effort at XX College

• The previous slide suggests ways you can create a
  student effort slide customized for your college.
  This slide shows examples of the types of charts
  you can create to execute these suggestions.

XX College Focused on Strengthening Student
Effort
XX College Performs Well Compared with Other
Large, Urban Colleges
50--
XX College Other CCSSE 2008
large, urban colleges
50 is the national average
42
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

43
Key Findings 2008 CCSSE Cohort
Key Findings for Academic Challenge

• During the current school year, how much has your
  coursework at this college emphasized the
  following mental activities?

Percentage of students responding quite a bit or
very much
This survey item is not part of the academic
challenge benchmark but is included here for
purposes of comparison. Source 2008 CCSSE
Cohort data.
44
Academic Challenge at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college. Slide and discussion
  ideas include
• Provide your colleges data for survey items
  related to academic challenge, and discuss the
  results. Provide examples of what you plan to do
  with the information (for example, increasing the
  amount of reading required of students or
  instituting professional development
  opportunities that can help instructors teach in
  ways that systematically require the analysis and
  synthesis of ideas).
• Compare your colleges performance on academic
  challenge with the performance of a group of
  similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of
  course) or to the full CCSSE population.
• Show your colleges benchmark chart, and discuss
  your results for academic challenge as they
  compare with your results for other benchmarks.
• Give examples of initiatives that your college
  has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen
  academic challenge on your campus(es).
• See the Student Effort at XX College slides
  for examples of the types of charts you can
  create to execute these suggestions.

45
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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Key Findings 2008 CCSSE Cohort
Support for Learners Use and Value of Student
Services
How often do you use the following services?
How important are the following services?
Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
47
Support for Learners at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college. Slide and discussion
  ideas include
• Provide your colleges data for survey items
  related to support for learners, and discuss the
  results. Provide examples of what you plan to do
  with the information (for example, integrating
  academic advising and career counseling services
  with classwork).
• Compare your colleges performance on support for
  learners with the performance of a group of
  similar colleges (without naming the colleges, of
  course) or to the full CCSSE population.
• Show your colleges benchmark chart, and discuss
  your results for support for learners as they
  compare with your results for other benchmarks.
• Give examples of initiatives that your college
  has developed (or plans to develop) to strengthen
  support for learners on your campus(es).
• See the Student Effort at XX College slides
  for examples of the types of charts you can
  create to execute these suggestions.

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2008 CCFSSE Findings
49
2008 CCFSSE Findings

• CCFSSE
• Elicits information from faculty about their
  teaching practices, the ways they spend their
  professional time both in and out of class, and
  their perceptions regarding students educational
  experiences.
• Is aligned with CCSSE to allow colleges to
  contrast student and faculty perceptions.

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A Tale of Two Perspectives
Student Engagement Student and Faculty Views

• CCFSSE data are based on results from all
  colleges in the 2008 CCFSSE Cohort. When student
  (CCSSE) and faculty (CCFSSE) views are shown
  side-by-side in this presentation, the student
  responses include data only from colleges that
  participated in the faculty survey. It also is
  important to note that while CCSSE results are
  expressed in terms of benchmarks, which are
  created through a complex statistical analysis
  and peer review, there are no benchmarks for
  CCFSSE. For this presentation, CCFSSE results are
  presented in groupings of survey items that
  correspond to the CCSSE benchmarks.

Source 2008 CCSSE and CCFSSE Cohort data.
51
Student and Faculty Perceptions at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college if your college
  participated in CCFSSE. Provide data from your
  CCFSSE findings, contrasting them with CCSSE
  findings if appropriate, and discuss them.
• See the notes for this slide for discussion
  ideas.

52
CCFSSE How Faculty Members Use Class Time

• In your selected course section, on average, what
  percentage of class time is spent on each of
  these activities?

Note Percentages may not total 100 due to
rounding. Source 2008
CCFSSE Cohort data.
53
How Faculty Members Spend Their Time at XX
College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college if your college
  participated in CCFSSE. Provide data from your
  CCFSSE findings, contrasting them with CCSSE
  findings if appropriate, and discuss them.
• See the notes for this slide for discussion
  ideas.

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2008 CCSSE Special Focus Findings
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2008 Special Focus Financial Assistance
For many students, financial aid is the first and
most important element of student engagement.

• If they do not get financial aid, nothing else
  the college does will matter because the student
  will not be able to enroll and stay in school.
• CCSSE developed the 2008 special focus survey
  items in collaboration with the congressionally
  appointed Advisory Committee on Student Financial
  Assistance (ACSFA).

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Financial AssistanceCompleting the FAFSA
Have you submitted the FAFSA to pay for your
expenses at this college?
Source 2008 CCSSE data.
57
Financial AssistanceCompleting the FAFSA
If you did not complete the FAFSA, what was the
main reason you did not?
Source 2008 CCSSE data.
58
Financial AssistancePercentage of Students
Awarded Aid
Did you receive (or have you been notified that
you will receive) any type of financial aid to
help pay for college?
Part-time students
Full-time students
Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
59
Financial AssistanceLearning about Aid
Which one of the following best describes the
sources from which you originally learned about
the process for applying for financial aid?
Source 2008 CCSSE Cohort data.
60
Financial Assistance at XX College

• This is an opportunity to customize one or more
  slides for your college. Provide data from your
  special focus findings and discuss entering
  student engagement at your college.
• See the notes for this slide for discussion ideas.