BENCHMARKING EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE IN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

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BENCHMARKING EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE IN
COMMUNITY COLLEGES
What Were Learning. What Lies Ahead.
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CCSSE OVERVIEW
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CCSSE A Tool for Improvement

• The Community College Survey of Student
  Engagement (CCSSE) is a tool that helps us keep
  this commitment. CCSSE helps us
• assess quality in community college education
• identify and learn from good educational practice
  practice that promotes high levels of student
  learning and persistence and
• identify areas in which we can improve programs
  and services for students.

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CCSSE A Tool for CommunityColleges

• The CCSSE survey
• is administered directly to community college
  students during class sessions
• asks questions about institutional practices
  and student behaviors that are highly correlated
  with student learning and retention and
• uses a sampling methodology that is consistent
  across all participating colleges.
• About a quarter million community college
  students (representing 2.68 million students)
  from 444 community and technical colleges in 45
  states are part of the 2006 CCSSE cohort.

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CCSSE A Tool for Accountability

• CCSSE
• provides reliable data on issues that matter
• reports data publicly and
• is committed to using data for improvement.
• CCSSE opposes using its data to rank colleges.

ranking
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Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice

• CCSSE reports survey results in two ways
  national benchmarks areas that educational
  research has shown to be important in quality
  educational practice and students responses to
  individual survey items. The five benchmarks are
• Active and CollaborativeLearning
• Student Effort
• Academic Challenge
• Student-Faculty Interaction
• Support for Learners

CCSSEville Community College 2005 Benchmark Scores
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Active and Collaborative Learning

• Students learn more when they are actively
  involved in their education and have
  opportunities to think about and apply what they
  are learning in different settings. The seven
  survey items that contribute to this benchmark
  are
• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Asked questions in class or contributed to class
  discussions
• Made a class presentation

(continued on next slide)
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Active and Collaborative Learning

• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Worked with other students on projects during
  class
• Worked with classmates outside of class to
  prepare class assignments
• Tutored or taught other students (paid or
  voluntary)
• Participated in a community-based project as a
  part of a regular course
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes
  with others outside of class (students, family
  members, co-workers, etc.)

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Active and Collaborative Learning

• Key Findings All CCSSE 2005 colleges
• Students who often or very often ...

Source CCSSE 2005 data.
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Student Effort

• Students behaviors contribute significantly to
  their learning and the likelihood that they will
  attain their educational goals. The eight survey
  items associated with this benchmark are
• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Prepared two or more drafts of a paper or
  assignment before turning it in
• Worked on a paper or project that required
  integrating ideas or information from various
  sources
• Come to class without completing readings or
  assignments

(continued on next slide)
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Student Effort

• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Used peer or other tutoring services
• Used skill labs
• Used a computer lab
• During the current school year
• How many books did you read on your own (not
  assigned) for personal enjoyment or academic
  enrichment
• How many hours did you spend in a typical week
  preparing for class (studying, reading, writing,
  rehearsing, or other activities related to your
  program)

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Student Effort

• Key Findings All CCSSE 2005 colleges
• Full-time students who

Note This survey item asks students how often
they come to class without completing readings
or assignments. Responses of Never are reverse
coded here.
Source CCSSE 2005 data.
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Academic Challenge

• Challenging intellectual and creative work is
  central to student learning and collegiate
  quality. The 10 survey items associated with this
  benchmark are
• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Worked harder than you thought you could to meet
  an instructors standards or expectations

(continued on next slide)
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Academic Challenge

• How much does your coursework at this college
  emphasize
• Analyzing the basic elements of an idea,
  experience, or theory
• Synthesizing and organizing ideas, information,
  or experiences in new ways
• Making judgments about the value or soundness of
  information, arguments, or methods
• Applying theories or concepts to practical
  problems or in new situations
• Using information you have read or heard to
  perform a new skill

(continued on next slide)
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Academic Challenge

• During the current school year
• How many assigned textbooks, manuals, books, or
  book-length packs of course readings did you read
• How many papers or reports of any length did you
  write
• To what extent have your examinations challenged
  you to do your best work
• How much does this college emphasize
• Encouraging you to spend significant amounts of
  time studying

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Academic Challenge

• Key Findings All CCSSE 2005 colleges
• Full-time students who wrote papers or reportsof
  any length during the year

Source CCSSE 2005 data.
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Student-Faculty Interaction

• In general, the more interaction students have
  with their teachers, the more likely they are to
  learn effectively and persist toward achievement
  of their educational goals. The six items used in
  this benchmark are
• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Used e-mail to communicate with an instructor
• Discussed grades or assignments with an
  instructor

(continued on next slide)
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Student-Faculty Interaction

• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Talked about career plans with an instructor or
  advisor
• Discussed ideas from your readings or classes
  with instructors outside of class
• Received prompt feedback (written or oral) from
  instructors on your performance
• Worked with instructors on activities other than
  coursework

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Student-Faculty Interaction

• Key Findings All CCSSE 2005 colleges
• Students who often or very often ...

Source CCSSE 2005 data.
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Support for Learners

• Students perform better and are more satisfied at
  colleges that are committed to their success and
  cultivate positive working and social
  relationships among different groups on campus.
  The seven survey items that contribute to this
  benchmark are
• How much does this college emphasize
• Providing the support you need to help you
  succeed at this college
• Encouraging contact among students from different
  economic, social, and racial or ethnic
  backgrounds

(continued on next slide)
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Support for Learners

• How much does this college emphasize
• Helping you cope with your nonacademic
  responsibilities (work, family, etc.)
• Providing the support you need to thrive socially
• Providing the financial support you need to
  afford your education
• During the current school year, how often have
  you
• Used academic advising/planning services
• Used career counseling services

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Support for Learners

• Most
• Important
• Service?

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WHAT WERE LEARNING PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS AND
PROPOSITIONS
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EARLY LESSONS

• 1 Engagement matters
• for community college students
• and different kinds of engagement matter most
  for different kinds of students

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EARLY LESSONS

• 2 In community colleges, engagement is
  unlikely to happen by accident.
• It has to happen by design.
• See results for in- vs. out-of-class engagement.

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EARLY LESSONS

• 3 Engagement is beneficial for community
  college students in general -- but evidently,
  most of all for students at risk.
• See conditional effects.

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EARLY LESSONS

• 4 Its never as simple as we might wish it
  were.
• E.g.,
• Institutional size matters but not as much as
  we might predict
• More variation within colleges than across?

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EARLY LESSONS

• 5 The compensatory effect
• i.e., where there are differences in engagement
  between high-risk groups and their comparison
  groups (academically under-prepared students,
  students of color, first generation students,
  nontraditional college age students) --- the
  high-risk students are more engaged.

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EARLY LESSONS

• 6 We must engage students early and often.
• Coming soon the Entering Student Survey

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EARLY LESSONS

• 7 Focused, sustained efforts, targeted to
  significant numbers of students, can produce
  improvements, both in CCSSE results and in
  student outcomes.
• CCSSE/ NSSE results reflect programs/practices
  AND
• Targeting changes in programs/practices can
  affect CCSSE results and student outcomes

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THREE WRONG IDEAS

• This benchmarking, building a culture of
  evidence, using data to improve student success
  is a project.
• There are marginal, quick fixes.
• Resources and selectivity matter most.
• And the bonus 4 wrong idea
• Average is good enough.

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THREE RIGHT IDEAS

• Data are our friends.
• Transparency is good.
• However good we are today, its not good enough.

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WHAT LIES AHEAD?

• QUESTIONS? SUGGESTIONS?