The Center for Community College Student Engagement recently released, Engagement Rising: A Decade of CCSSE Data Shows Improvements Across the Board, which highlights trends in over ten years of Community College Survey of Student Engagement data. When looking at data from 2004 – 2014, we found responses increased or stayed constant for all students. Over this period, student demographics remained relatively the same, so the rise in engagement is not likely the result of who is attending college but instead the result of intentional change in policy and practice at colleges across the country.

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) data used in the analysis were collected from nearly two million student respondents across almost 900 community colleges. Engagement Rising highlights the areas in which engagement has increased the most, paying special attention to full- and part-time students and non-developmental and developmental students.

To review the full report, visit http://www.ccsse.org/docs/Engagement_Rising.pdf.

Evelyn Waiwaiole is the director of the Center for Community College Student Engagement at The University of Texas at Austin (UT).