| The National Survey of Student
Engagement (NSSE) is specifically designed to assess the
extent to which students are engaged in empirically derived
good educational practices and what they gain from their
college experience (Kuh, 2001). The main content of the
NSSE instrument, The College Student Report, represents
student behaviors that are highly correlated with many
desirable learning and personal development outcomes of
college. Responding to the questionnaire requires that
students reflect on what they are putting into and getting
out of their college experience. Thus, completing the
survey itself is consistent with effective educational
practice. |
The results from the NSSE project
have been used to produce a set of national benchmarks
of good educational practice that participating schools
are using to estimate the efficacy of their improvement
efforts (Kuh, 2001). For example, administrators and faculty
members at dozens of schools are using their NSSE results
to discover patterns of student-faculty interactions and
the frequency of student participation in other educational
practices that they can influence directly and indirectly
to improve student learning. In addition, some states
are using NSSE data in their performance indicator systems
and for other public accountability functions. |
