Committing to Student Engagement AVC 2008 Findings.

Committing to Student Engagement

AVC 2008 Findings

Community College Survey of Student Engagement

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



How the CCSSE Survey Came to AVC:

Spring 2008

Researched by the Student Success and Equity Committee

Funding Approved by the Enrollment Management Committee



Why the CCSSE Survey:

Nationally Normed Survey to Measure

• Institutional Learning Outcomes, Program Learning Outcomes, Operational Outcomes and Student Learning Outcomes.

Survey Given to 62 Randomly Selected Classes (Excluding Classes with High Percentage of High School Students)

• Classes at Both Lancaster and Palmdale• Randomly Selected by Time of Day



Who Took the Survey:

Gender

– M 47% 39% 42%

– F 53% 61% 58%

Age

– 18-19 36% 30% 25%

– 20-21 26% 18% 19%– 22-24 12% 13% 15%– 25-29 9% 11% 14%– 30-39 5% 12% 14%– 40-49 5% 12% 8%– 50-64 4% 11% 4%– 65+ 0% 0% 1%

AVC Respondents AVC IPEDS Cohort Colleges



Who Took the Survey:

Ethnicity

– American Indian 1% 1% 1%– Asian/Pacific Islander 5% 6% 6%– Black 14% 18% 14%– White 39% 40% 57%– Hispanic 29% 28% 16%– Other 7% 7% 5%

Full Time/Part Time

– Full Time 68% 32% 38%– Part Time 32% 68% 62%

Respondents AVC Cohort Colleges


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, Nova Scotia, and the Marshall Islands.


Antelope Valley College

Berkeley City College

Butte College

Citrus College

College of the Desert

College of the Siskiyous

El Camino College

El Camino College Compton Center

Glendale Community College

Participating California Community Colleges in 2008 :

Laney College

Moorpark College

Oxnard College

Sacramento City College

San Jose City College

Skyline College

Ventura College

West Hills College Coalinga

West Hills College Lemoore

West Hills College NDC

CCSSE Benchmarks


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


Benchmarking — and Reaching for Excellence

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



0

10

20

30

40

50

60

AV

C B

ench

mar

k S

core

1. A

ctiv

e an

d c

oll

abo

rati

ve l

earn

ing

2. S

tud

ent

effo

rt

3. A

cad

emic

ch

alle

ng

e

4. S

tud

ent

facu

lty

inte

ract

ion

5. S

up

po

rt f

or

lear

ner

s



0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Ben

chm

ark

Sco

re

1. A

ctiv

e an

d c

oll

abo

rati

ve l

earn

ing

2. S

tud

ent

effo

rt

3. A

cad

emic

ch

alle

ng

e

4. S

tud

ent

facu

lty

inte

ract

ion

5. S

up

po

rt f

or

lear

ner

s

Part TimeFull Time



0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Ben

chm

ark

Sco

re

1. A

ctiv

e an

d c

oll

abo

rati

ve l

earn

ing

2. S

tud

ent

effo

rt

3. A

cad

emic

ch

alle

ng

e

4. S

tud

ent

facu

lty

inte

ract

ion

5. S

up

po

rt f

or

lear

ner

s

<3030+

Building aCulture of Evidence


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


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


Active and Collaborative Learning at AVC

Benchmark Scores

Antelope Valley College Large Colleges 2008 CCSSE Cohort

All Students 50.5 49.3 50.0


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


Student Effort at AVC

Benchmark Scores




Academic Challenge

Survey items associated with this benchmark include experiences such as:

Working harder than you thought you could to meet an instructor’s expectations

Whether coursework emphasizes synthesis and analysis as opposed to memorization

The number of assigned textbooks and papers


Academic Challenge at AVC

Benchmark Scores




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


Student-Faculty Interaction at AVC

Benchmark Scores




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


Support for Learners at AVC

Benchmark Scores




Five Lessons Learned

Lesson #1: Be intentional

Engagement doesn’t happen by accident; it happens by design.

Just as colleges must be intentional about engagement, students must be intentional about their own success.



Lesson #2: Engagement matters for all students, but it matters more for some than for others

There are consistent, unacceptable gaps between outcomes for high-risk students and outcomes for their peers.

CCSSE data show that high-risk students typically are more engaged than their peers, but tend to have lower aspirations and less successful outcomes.



Lesson #3: Part-time students and faculty are the reality of community colleges — and typically are not addressed in improvement efforts

Colleges that are serious about improvement must better engage part-time students.

Colleges are beginning to engage part-time faculty to better engage part-time students.



Lesson #4: Data are our friends

Colleges operating within a culture of evidence embrace data, sharing them honestly and unflinchingly.

Data often conflict with individuals’ observations because data show the typical student experience — and that is what colleges must understand to improve.



Lesson #5: Look behind the numbers

Colleges can go deeper with qualitative data, such as student focus groups.

On the national level, CCSSE is exploring how relationships help students succeed, and is continuing its research program.


Five Strategies That Work

Strategy #1: Set high expectations and clear goals

Set high expectations:

Set and communicate high expectations.

Language matters.



Strategy #1: Set high expectations and clear goals

Set clear goals:

Set goals and provide the support to meet them.



Strategy #2: Focus on the front door

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

Current research indicates that helping students succeed through the equivalent of the first semester can dramatically improve retention — and improve students’ chances of attaining further milestones.



Strategy #3: Elevate developmental education

Up to 61% of all first-time community college students are academically underprepared for college-level courses, and the numbers are far higher in some settings.*

Research shows that effective remediation pays high dividends, but success may depend on early intervention.

*Source: Adelman, C. Principal Indicators of Student Academic Histories in Postsecondary Education, 1972-2000 (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences), January 2004.



Strategy #4: Use engaging instructional approaches

Most community college students are on campus only when they attend classes.

CCSSE data indicate that the most successful engagement strategies happen in classrooms.

Colleges can play to the strength of in-class engagement by maximizing engaging instructional approaches.



Strategy #5: Make engagement inescapable

Colleges are most likely to engage students when they make engagement inescapable.

Colleges and their faculty members can set the tone for — and set the terms of — student engagement.

Committing to Student Engagement AVC 2008 Findings.

Documents

Transcript of Committing to Student Engagement AVC 2008 Findings.