Students Less Engaged at Community Colleges?

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE; modeled after NSSE) has just published "Committing to Student Engagement: Reflections on CCSSEE's First Five Years, 2007 Findings." This USA Today article by Mary Beth Marklein reports on it. The complete study can and an executive summary can be downloaded here. The report's executive summary presents "Five Strategies That Work":

• Set High Expectations and Clear Goals
• Focus on the Front Door
• Elevate Developmental Education
• Use Engaging Instructional Approaches
• Make Engagement Inescapable

From the USA Today article:

Many community college students begin slipping through the cracks at school almost as soon as they first set foot on campus, a report says Monday.

The report, released by the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, urges colleges to be "deliberate and aggressively create opportunities to involve students" in their studies, beginning with a student's first interaction on campus.

The report is based on annual student surveys conducted in the past three years. This year's survey was completed by about 310,000 students from more than 500 colleges nationwide.