CCSSE Receives $2 Million for SENSE - August 13, 2007

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) will use more than $2 million in grants from Lumina Foundation for Education and Houston Endowment Inc. to launch the Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE), a new national survey focusing on institutional practices and student behaviors in the earliest weeks of college.

Lumina Foundation, a strong CCSSE supporter since the project’s inception in 2001, has awarded SENSE $886,000. The Houston Endowment Inc. awarded $1.15 million to SENSE, while also augmenting its prior support for 29 small Texas community colleges to participate in CCSSE and strengthen student engagement. According to Kay McClenney, director of both surveys, “These foundations have made an extraordinary commitment to initiatives focused on improving learning, persistence and attainment among community college students – a commitment that is also at the heart of our work.”

The SENSE pilot survey will be administered directly to students at 22 colleges during the fourth and fifth weeks of the 2007 fall academic term. The colleges will receive their survey results in early 2008, along with other tools they can use to improve their programs and services for entering students. With use of the data to target improvement efforts over time, SENSE should be useful in improving course completion rates and rates of student persistence to the second and subsequent academic terms. The survey will be field tested in 2008 and will open to nationwide participation in 2009.

“Evidence suggests that if community and technical colleges can help students to successfully complete 12 -15 credit hours (the equivalent of one semester), the chances that those students will attain further milestones—and ultimately, certificates and degrees—are also greatly enhanced,” says SENSE Project Coordinator Angela Oriano-Darnall. “By focusing on the ‘front door’ of the college experience, SENSE is aimed at helping colleges help more of their new students succeed.”

Located at The University of Texas at Austin as part of the Community College Leadership Program, CCSSE is committed to public reporting of survey results, promoting public understanding of the work of community colleges, supporting institutional improvement, and advancing discussion about new ways of defining and examining quality in higher education. Learn more about CCSSE online at: www.ccsse.org or about its newest project, SENSE, at www.enteringstudent.org.

— Kay McClenney, CCSSE Director, 512-471-5228

Related Links:

• CCSSE Website
• SENSE Website