Relationship between CCCSE and NSSE
The Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE) works in partnership with the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). There are important similarities and distinctions between the two initiatives.
NSSE, which focuses on four-year colleges and universities, was established in 1998. It is headquartered at Indiana University in the Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning and is directed by Alexander McCormick. The survey, administered to first-year and senior students in four-year institutions, emerged in response to concerns about the lack of emphasis on student learning in the major (and highly visible) college rankings in the United States. From the beginning, NSSE's leaders and funders understood the need for a community college version of the survey that takes into account the unique mission and student populations of the two-year institutions. CCCSE, therefore was established in 2001 (then operating under the name of its flagship survey) as part of the Community College Leadership Program at The University of Texas at Austin.
How CCCSE and NSSE Are Similar
- CCCSE and NSSE share an empirical base in the research on effective practice in undergraduate education. Both projects focus on educational practices and student behaviors that research shows are connected to desired outcomes of college.
- CCCSE and NSSE share a strong interest in institutional improvement and a strong companion interest in influencing the definition and public understanding of "quality" in collegiate education.
- CCSSE, SENSE, and NSSE rely on students' perceptions regarding their undergraduate experience.
- There is intentional and substantial overlap in the content of the surveys. The pool of common items will provide useful data for future research jointly conducted by CCCSE and NSSE.
- National benchmarks for student engagement have been developed for NSSE and are publicly available for CCSSE and SENSE.
- The two initiatives have common funders (The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Lumina Foundation for Education) and co-sponsors (The Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning and The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). CCCSE and NSSE leaders participate on one another's advisory boards, and they are committed to collaborative work, both on common concerns and in locales where two- and four-year institutions are part of the same system.
How CCCSE and NSSE Are Different
- The institutions served by CCCSE and NSSE are very different. Even within the two-year and four-year sectors, of course, institutions vary significantly. But the differences between community colleges and their four-year counterparts in terms of mission, student populations, and resources are of a larger order of magnitude.
- While there is substantial and intentional overlap in the survey instruments, there also are significant differences. Development of the community college version involved the deletion of inappropriate items (for example, those that assume on-campus residency) and the addition of new items—including more emphasis on items pertinent to technical education, student and academic support services, and student retention, for example.
- There are substantial differences in the sampling and survey administration procedures between the NSSE and CCCSE surveys. While NSSE invites students to complete its survey via a variety of media, CCCSE draws samples for CCSSE and SENSE at the course level, and the surveys are administered to students during class sessions.
- Public reporting of survey results is a condition of participation for CCCSE but is at the discretion of participating institutions for NSSE.
So, while major objectives are shared and the work is collaborative, the differences between the NSSE and CCCSE initiatives are substantial enough that comparisons of results from the two organizations' surveys are not useful or appropriate at the present time. Nonetheless, the two organizations' surveys together offer the future prospect of examining student engagement across the two- and four-year sectors and ultimately should provide a useful look at overall collegiate quality. As CCCSE builds its national database, therefore, the two organizations will engage in collaborative research to ascertain the extent to which the survey results may be compared appropriately, as well as the necessary limits on such comparisons.