October 30, 2006
AtD Update #5: October 30, 2006 Achieving the Dream at Lone Star College System: What the Community College Survey of Student Engagement Tells Us about Student Engagement
Vincent Tinto[1] and others have found that students are more likely to persist in college when they are academically and socially engaged. According to Tinto, five conditions tend to support student persistence in higher education: expectation (i.e. they expect to complete their degree as well as whether or not they perceive faculty expect them to succeed), advice, support, involvement and learning. The questions contained in the 2005 Community College Survey of Students Engagement (CCSSE) were designed to help participating colleges measure students' level of engagement in these five areas, thus determining the level to which their students are engaged inside and outside of the classroom. Since further research has found that persistence and retention improve when colleges implement strategies to increase student engagement, the goal for CCSSE colleges is to utilize survey results to identify strategies to improve student engagement.
The 2005 Lone Star College System CCSSE survey revealed that good teaching is occurring in our classrooms. The district was recognized by CCSSE for ranking in the upper 50 percentile in all five of the CCSSE Performance Benchmarks[2]. For example,
- 66 percent of the students reported that they were required to analyze ideas and experiences "very much or quite a bit of the time";
- 51 percent reported that they were "very much or quite a bit of the time" required to assess the quality of information, arguments, and methodologies; and
- 60 percent reported they had written five or more papers over the school year.
Of concern continues to be the level of engagement which students report outside class. Lone Star College System students reveled that
- 42 percent spent five or fewer hours per week preparing for class;
- 55 percent never discussed class materials outside of class (up from 44 percent in 2003); and
- In the year prior to the survey, 27.9 percent did not read any books on their own (not assigned for class reading) for personal enrichment. Another 51.2 percent only read between one and four unassigned books.
What is particularly interesting are the implications that may be gleaned from CCSSE findings and other external research sources. For example, in looking at the 2005 Lone Star College System CCSSE data, 82 percent of our students reported that they had never participated in a community-based project as part of a regular course (i.e. service learning). This bit of information by itself might seem rather insignificant except for the fact that slightly over 71 percent of our students are under 25 years of age. Born in the 1980's and 90's and coming into adulthood at the start of a new millennium, these students are part of the "Millennial Generation"[3]. Howe and Strauss, authors of Millennials Rising, correctly predicted that within this group, there would be renewed interest in civic duty, a desire to help and give back to their communities[4]. Recent studies such as the Stamats TeensTALK (trends, attitudes, lifestyles and knowledge) surveys indicate that this tendency continues to hold[5]. For example, in early 2006 when Stamats staff asked 1000 11th and 12th graders to rank their life aspirations, 56 percent ranked helping others in need as "Very Important." In a follow-up webinar on how colleges could better engage Millennials, Stamats staff recommended that institutions promote either course-based or extracurricular service-learning activities. If we follow that line of reasoning, then one inference we might make is that providing more opportunities for our students to act upon their collective desire to help others might improve engagement.
As we dig into the work of AtD, we encourage you to review the 2005 CCSSE findings[6] and begin a dialogue about these data with your colleagues and with the students you interact with daily. What do our students value? What are their life aspirations? How are those values and life aspirations different from our own? Although perhaps somewhat of a rhetorical question, should the college experience in same way be related to students' life aspirations? If so, how can we, as a college district, tap into those interests and values? What strategies do the results of CCSSE and other research indicate might help improve student engagement and success? The bottom line is that while the numbers are interesting, the goal of AtD is to identify and implement strategies which will help our students reach their educational and career goals.
The AtD Updates are produced by the Lone Star College System Core Team and distributed to the Lone Star College System community in an effort to inform as well as promote discussions on issues critical to improving student success. Should you have any questions about the information contained in the AtD Updates, need clarification about the data or simple wish to comment please contact Lea Campbell, Director of Student Success Initiatives (832-813-6584, carol.l.campbell@lonestar.edu).
[1] Vincent Tinto's article, Enhancing Student Persistence: Connecting the Dots (http://www.wiscape.wisc.edu/publications/attachments/419Tinto.pdf ) provides a concise summary of engagement and retention theory as well as appropriate references.
[2] Benchmarks are groups of conceptually related items that address key areas of student engagement. CCSSE's five benchmarks denote areas that educational research has shown to be important in quality educational practice. The benchmarks are active and collaborative learning, student effort, academic challenge, student-faculty interaction, and support for learners.
[3] For more information on Millennials, go to: http://www.millennialsrising.com/.
[4] http://www.millennialsrising.com/predictions.shtml
[5] A summary of the 2006 Stamats findings is available from Lea Campbell (x6584).
[6] Complete copies the 2005 Lone Star College System CCSSE findings are available through Vice Presidents of Academic Affairs at each campus.