10 Year Study Shows Community College Student Engagement Is Rising

COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT TRENDS UP AUSTIN, TX – The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) was created in 2001 to provide colleges with information about student engagement and to guide efforts in improving student learning and retention. The Center for Community College Student Engagement released a report today, Engagement Rising: A Decade of CCSSE Data Shows Improvements Across the Board, which highlights trends in over ten years of CCSSE data. From 2004-2014, for every engagement item, positive responses increased or stayed constant for all students. Student demographics have remained relatively stable during this time period, so the rise in engagement is not likely the result of who is attending college, but instead the result of intentional change in policy and practice at colleges across the country. The CCSSE data used in the report analysis were collected from nearly two million student respondents across almost 900 community colleges. Engagement Rising highlights the areas in which engagement has increased the most, paying special attention to full- and part-time students and non-developmental and developmental students. Among the data highlighted in the report are these findings:  The percentage of part-time students who reported making a class presentation rose seven percentage points, and the percentage of full-time students who reported coming to class unprepared dropped ten percentage points. 

Both developmental and non-developmental students reported discussing their career plans with an instructor or advisor more frequently over the last decade, and both groups also reported working with instructors on out-of-class activities more often.  All four student groups reported that the amount of financial support their college offered had increased quite a bit, with part-time students reporting a 12 percentage point increase. Findings in the report indicate that when colleges use data to inform policy and practice, student behavior changes and engagement improves. According to Center Director Evelyn Waiwaiole, “Colleges can design the student experience to require actions that improve engagement. In 2004, 38% of full-time students said they never skipped class; by 2014, that had changed to 50%. That’s not accidental.” The Center is a research and service initiative of the Program in Higher Education Leadership in the College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin. – 30- Engagement Rising: A Decade of CCSSE Data Shows Improvements Across the Board is available online at www.ccsse.org/docs/Engagement_Rising.pdf.