Why CCSSE?

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), a product and service of the Center for Community College Student Engagement, is a well-established tool that helps institutions focus on good educational practice and identify areas in which they can improve their programs and services for students.

Administered during the spring to mostly returning students, CCSSE asks about institutional practices and student behaviors that are highly correlated with student learning and retention. CCSSE serves as a complementary piece to the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), with a more broad focus on the student experience.

Quick Links

Would you like to learn more about CCSSE? Here are some links to get you started:

• Overview
• Survey Instrument
• Annotated Bibliography
• National Findings
• Member Colleges
• CCFSSE (Faculty Survey)
• Pricing and Participation
• Annual Registration
• Tools
• Survey Administration

For more information about the Center and its projects, select one of the tabs in the upper-left corner of the website.

Register Now for Fall 2014 Entering Student Survey

Interested in learning more about students’ earliest experiences in college and what may be impacting retention patterns? The Center invites community and technical colleges to participate in a national administration of its entering student survey. Registration for the 2014 Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE) is currently underway.

 

The Center Releases Expanded Tools

Center staff have recently updated and expanded tools for member colleges. The Tools page contains multiple resources for colleges to use while preparing for a CCSSE administration, communicating about survey results, and working with those results to improve student engagement.

Among the tools on the Preparing for Administration page is a talking point document to share with faculty and staff and a sample participant news release to communicate information about an upcoming administration with the college community at large.

The Working with Results page contains tools for colleges to use as they begin to explore their CCSSE data, including a data narrative exercise. This tool can be used in a group setting to develop a data-driven story that takes shape as data are shared and discussed.

The Sharing Results page houses several key communication templates, including a Drop-In Overview Report template and a Drop-In Overview Presentation template, both customizable for colleges to use when sharing CCSSE results.

The Accreditation Guides suggest ways for institutions to incorporate CCSSE into regional accreditation and include suggested timelines for administering CCSSE as part of the accreditation process and a map that links CCSSE data to regional standards.

The Focus Group Toolkit contains materials for organizing focus groups as well as sample focus group discussion guides for entering students, returning students, faculty, and student services staff.