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:

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

The Center website will experience some down time May 21st and 22nd due to server maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Attend the 2012 Center Workshop!

The 2012 Center Workshop, devoted this year to the collective effort of identifying and promoting high-impact educational practices in community colleges, will offer several hands-on breakout sessions offered by Center staff and college colleagues, as well as a plenary luncheon with Vincent Tinto.

Registration for the workshop is required for lunch and refreshments. Walk-in registration may be available, but seating is very limited and lunch is not guaranteed. Please review the agenda. Registration closes Wednesday, May 23.

The workshop is an annual training and networking event hosted by the Center and held concurrently with the NISOD Annual International Conference on Teaching and Leadership Excellence.

CCSSE 2013 Registration Now Open

Do you want to make a difference in student learning and retention at your college? The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) affords colleges a great opportunity to ascertain how they are doing in those areas that matter most. Registration for the 2013 administration of CCSSE is underway and will remain open until November 1, or the point at whichmembership reaches 350 colleges.

Before registering, please review information about pricing, adding custom special-focus items, and other membership options.

In addition to the regular CCSSE survey instrument, colleges participating in the 2013 administration will receive—free of charge—an additional special-focus item set composed of 20 key items pertaining to promising practices in community colleges. These items are part of a new Center initiative, Identifying and Promoting High-Impact Educational Practices in Community Colleges. If your college opts to add custom survey items to your administration, your college will receive the first five promising practices items, in addition to your custom survey items.

CCSSE 2012 Survey Administration Now Underway

The 2012 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) administration, with 270 participating colleges, marks the second year of a large-scale initiative focused on identifying and promoting high-impact educational practices in community colleges.

As part of the High-Impact Practices Initiative, in addition to the regular CCSSE survey instrument, many CCSSE 2012 colleges are administering a special-focus item set comprised of key questions pertaining to potential high-impact practices in community colleges. A parallel special-focus item set has been incorporated in CCFSSE (the companion faculty survey). These items explore the extent of faculty members’ involvement in planning, designing, and implementing the identified promising practices in their teaching and other work with students.

Initiative work will continue in the way of these special-focus items with CCSSE and CCFSSE in 2013. Registration will open May 1, 2012.

Read more about CCSSE administration...

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.