Community College Survey of Student Engagement Prince George's Community College 2014 Key Findings

Table of Contents Key Findings: A Starting Point Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice Aspects of Highest Student Engagement Aspects of Lowest Student Engagement 2014 CCSSE Special-Focus Items CCFSSE

2 3 4 5 6 8

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Key Findings: A Starting Point The Key Findings report provides an entry point for reviewing results from your administration of the 2014 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE ). The report provides college-specific data in an easy-to-share format including benchmark comparisons between the college, top-performing colleges, and the CCSSE cohort. It also highlights aspects of highest and lowest student engagement at the college, as well as results from five of the CCSSE special-focus items on promising educational practices. Select faculty survey data are also highlighted.

Promising Practices for Student Success In each annual administration, CCSSE has included special-focus items to allow participating colleges and national researchers to delve more deeply into areas of student experience and institutional performance of great interest to the field. The 2014 special-focus items are part of an ongoing national research project focused on community college students’ participation in a defined collection of promising practices for which there is emerging evidence of effectiveness in strengthening student learning, persistence, and attainment. This work will link data from the CCSSE special-focus items; related items on the faculty survey (CCFSSE ), which explore the extent of faculty members’ use of the identified promising practices in their teaching; and institutional data collected from the Community College Institutional Survey (CCIS) that address questions about how these promising practices are implemented across varied institutions. This data collection will provide empirical confirmation of promising educational practices in community colleges, quantification of the extent to which those practices are part of the current experience of our students, and information about whether participation in these types of practices varies across subgroups of students. Ongoing data analysis will provide new evidence of how student participation in these practices is related to overall student engagement, academic progress, and college completion.

Benchmark Overview by Enrollment Status Figure 1 below represents your institution’s CCSSE benchmark scores by students’ enrollment status.

Figure 1

Benchmark Scores

90 80 70

62.3

60.8

60 51.5

54.6

60.6 54.7

50

58.5 50.2

50.6

54.3

40 30 20 Active and Collaborative Learning

Student Effort

Academic Challenge

Less than full-time students Full-time students

2

Student-Faculty Interaction

Support for Learners

Benchmarks of Effective Educational Practice The CCSSE benchmarks are groups of conceptually related survey items that address key areas of student engagement. The five benchmarks denote areas that educational research has shown to be important to students’ college experiences and educational outcomes. Therefore, they provide colleges with a useful starting point for looking at institutional results and allow colleges to gauge and monitor their performance in areas that are central to their work. In addition, participating colleges have the opportunity to make appropriate and useful comparisons between their performance and that of groups of other colleges.

CCSSE Benchmarks ★ Active and Collaborative Learning Students learn more when they are actively involved in their education and have opportunities to think about and apply what they are learning in different settings. Through collaborating with others to solve problems or master challenging content, students develop valuable skills that prepare them to deal with real-life situations and problems.

★ Student Effort Students’ own behaviors contribute significantly to their learning and the likelihood that they will successfully attain their educational goals.

Performing as well as the national average or a peer-group average may be a reasonable initial aspiration, but it is important to recognize that these averages are sometimes unacceptably low. Aspiring to match and then exceed highperformance targets is the stronger strategy.

★ Academic Challenge

Community colleges can differ dramatically on such factors as size, location, resources, enrollment patterns, and student characteristics. It is important to take these differences into account when interpreting benchmark scores—especially when making institutional comparisons. The Center for Community College Student Engagement has adopted the policy “Responsible Uses of CCSSE and SENSE Data,” available at www.cccse.org.

★ Student-Faculty Interaction

Challenging intellectual and creative work is central to student learning and collegiate quality. These survey items address the nature and amount of assigned academic work, the complexity of cognitive tasks presented to students, and the rigor of examinations used to evaluate student performance.

In general, the more contact students have with their teachers, the more likely they are to learn effectively and to persist toward achievement of their educational goals. Through such interactions, faculty members become role models, mentors, and guides for continuous, lifelong learning.

★ Support for Learners Students perform better and are more satisfied at colleges that provide important support services, cultivate positive relationships among groups on campus, and demonstrate commitment to their success.

CCSSE uses a three-year cohort of participating colleges in all core survey analyses. The current cohort is referred to as the 2014 CCSSE Cohort (2012-2014) throughout all reports.

For further information about CCSSE benchmarks, please visit www.cccse.org.

Benchmark Scores

Figure 2 90 80 70 60

60.3 54.2

58.6

56.8

57.4

56.4

50.0

50.0

50.0

Active and Collaborative Learning

Student Effort

Academic Challenge

50

60.2

59.1 52.6 50.0

51.7 50.0

40 30 20

Prince George's Community College

2014 CCSSE Cohort

Student-Faculty Interaction

Support for Learners

2014 Top-Performing Colleges*

*Top-Performing colleges are those that scored in the top 10 percent of the cohort by benchmark.

Notes: Benchmark scores are standardized to have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 25 across all respondents. For further information about how benchmarks are computed, please visit www.cccse.org.

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Aspects of Highest Student Engagement Benchmark scores provide a manageable starting point for reviewing and understanding CCSSE data. One way to dig more deeply into the benchmark scores is to analyze those items that contribute to the overall benchmark score. This section features the five items across all benchmarks (excluding those for which means are not calculated) on which the college scored highest and the five items on which the college scored lowest relative to the 2014 CCSSE Cohort. The items highlighted on pages 4 and 5 reflect the largest differences in mean scores between the institution and the the 2014 CCSSE Cohort. While examining these data, keep in mind that the selected items may not be those that are most closely aligned with the college’s goals; thus, it is important to review all institutional reports on the CCSSE online reporting system at www.cccse.org. Figure 3 displays the aggregated frequencies for the items on which the college performed most favorably relative to the 2014 CCSSE Cohort. For instance, 31.0% of Prince George's Community College students, compared with 24.6% of other students in the cohort, responded often or very often on item 4g. It is important to note that some colleges’ highest scores might be lower than the cohort mean. Aggregated Percentage

Figure 3 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

81.7% 61.6%

80.8% 62.4%

59.1%

54.2% 31.0%

75.3%

67.9%

24.6%

4g Often or Very often

5e Quite a bit or Very much

4p Often or Very often

9a Quite a bit or Very much

13h1 Sometimes or Often

Prince George's Community College Table 1

2014 CCSSE Cohort

Benchmark

Item Number

Item

Active and Collaborative Learning

4g

Worked with classmates outside of class to prepare class assignments

Academic Challenge

4p

Worked harder than you thought you could to meet an instructor's standards or expectations

Academic Challenge

5e

Applying theories or concepts to practical problems or in new situations

Academic Challenge

9a

Encouraging you to spend significant amounts of time studying

Student Effort

13h1

Frequency: Computer lab

Notes: For Item(s) 4 (except 4e), often and very often responses are combined. For Item(s) 5, quite a bit and very much responses are combined. For Item(s) 9, quite a bit and very much responses are combined. For Item(s) 13, sometimes and often responses are combined.

4

Aspects of Lowest Student Engagement Figure 4 displays the aggregated frequencies for the items on which the college performed least favorably relative to the 2014 CCSSE Cohort. For instance, 7.6% of Prince George's Community College students, compared with 7.5% of other students in the cohort, responded often or very often on item 4i. It is important to note that some colleges’ lowest scores might be higher than the cohort mean.

Aggregated Percentage

Figure 4 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

58.4%

29.9% 7.6%

59.8% 52.7%

53.5%

29.7%

27.8%

29.6%

7.5%

4i Often or Very often

4m Often or Very often

6c 5 or more

9f Quite a bit or Very much

13b1 Sometimes or Often

Prince George's Community College 2014 CCSSE Cohort

Table 2

Benchmark Active and Collaborative Learning

Item Number 4i

Item Participated in a community-based project as a part of a regular course

Student-Faculty Interaction

4m

Talked about career plans with an instructor or advisor

Academic Challenge

6c

Number of written papers or reports of any length

Support For Learners

9f

Providing the financial support you need to afford your education

Support For Learners

13b1

Frequency: Career counseling

Notes: For Item(s) 4 (except 4e), often and very often responses are combined. For Item(s) 6, 5 to 10, 11 to 20, and more than 20 responses are combined. For Item(s) 9, quite a bit and very much responses are combined. For Item(s) 13, sometimes and often responses are combined.

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2014 CCSSE Special-Focus Items The Center adds special-focus items to CCSSE each year to augment the core survey, helping participating colleges and the field at large' to further explore fundamental areas of student engagement. The 2014 special-focus items continue to elicit new information about students’ experiences associated with promising educational practices such as early registration, orientation, freshman seminars, organized learning communities, and student success courses. Frequency results from the first five promising practices items for your college and the CCSSE promising practices respondents are displayed across pages 6 and 7.

Percentage

Figure 5: During the current term at this college, I completed registration before the first class sessions(s).

100 90.4% 89.2% 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0

5.0%

Yes; I was registered for ALL of my courses before the first class session(s)

6.4%

3.1%

Mostly; I was registered for MOST of my courses before the first class session(s)

2.4%

1.5%

2.0%

Partly; I was registered No; I was NOT registered for SOME of my courses for ANY of my courses before the first before the first class session(s) class session(s)

Prince George's Community College (N=707) 2012-2014 Promising Practices Respondents (N=395,755)

Percentage

Figure 6: The ONE response that best describes my experience with orientation when I first came to this college is:

100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 24.1% 20 12.3% 10 0 I took part in an online orientation prior to the beginning of classes

40.2% 42.5% 5.5% 8.3% I attended an on-campus orientation prior to the beginning of classes

I enrolled in an orientation course as part of my course schedule during my first term at this college

17.7% 19.1%

I was not aware of a college orientation

Prince George's Community College (N=701) 2012-2014 Promising Practices Respondents (N=394,126)

6

12.4%

17.8%

I was unable to participate in orientation due to scheduling or other issues

Percentage

Figure 7: During my first term at this college, I participated in a structured experience for new students (sometimes called a "freshman seminar" or "first-year experience"). 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 25.1% 23.4% 20 10 0 Yes, in my first term at this college

67.6% 69.4%

3.2%

2.9%

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term at this college

4.1%

4.3%

Yes, but NOT in my first term at this college

No, I did not

Prince George's Community College (N=672) 2012-2014 Promising Practices Respondents (N=384,829)

Percentage

Figure 8: During my first term at this college, I enrolled in an organized "learning community" (two or more courses that a group of students take together). 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 12.7% 7.7% 10 0 Yes, in my first term at this college

79.7%

3.6%

3.6%

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term at this college

4.0%

85.7%

3.0%

Yes, but NOT in my first term at this college

No, I did not

Prince George's Community College (N=669) 2012-2014 Promising Practices Respondents (N=381,940)

Percentage

Figure 9: During my first term at this college, I enrolled in a student success course (such as a student development, extended orientation, student life skills, or college success course). 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 27.4% 17.8% 20 10 0 Yes, in my first term at this college

73.7% 62.4%

4.5%

3.2%

Yes, in my first AND in at least one other term at this college

5.7%

5.3%

Yes, but NOT in my first term at this college

No, I did not

Prince George's Community College (N=671) 2012-2014 Promising Practices Respondents (N=381,869)

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CCFSSE The Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE) results displayed below reveal the proportion of full- and part-time faculty members that are involved in teaching or facilitating organized 'learning communities' (two or more courses that a group of students take together), structured experiences for new students (sometimes called a 'freshman seminar' or 'first-year experience'), and student success courses (such as a student development, extended orientation, study skills, student life skills, or college success courses). Additionally, these results can be viewed alongside the corresponding CCSSE special-focus item results featured on page 7 to reveal a more complete picture of how students and faculty are participating in the same promising practices. For colleges that did not administer CCFSSE, cohort respondent data are provided. Figure 10: During the current academic year at this college, have you been involved in teaching or facilitating a(n)

50

Percentage

40

30

20

17.8%

16.0%

12.4%

11.0%

10.1%

8.7%

10

0 Full-time faculty

Part-time faculty

Full-time faculty

Organized learning community

Part-time faculty

Full-time faculty

Structured experience for new students

Part-time faculty

Student success course

Table 3

Organized learning community Part-time faculty (N)

Full-time faculty (N)

Part-time faculty (N)

Full-time faculty (N)

Part-time faculty (N)

Did teach or facilitate

2,722

1,357

3,019

1,722

2,097

1,589

Did not teach or facilitate

14,252

14,316

13,955

13,951

14,877

14,084

16,974

15,673

16,974

15,673

16,974

15,673

Total

*Updated

Student success course

Full-time faculty (N)

Response

8

Structured experience for new students