Frequently Asked Questions

The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) is an assessment tool that provides information on student engagement, a key indicator of learning and, therefore, of the quality of community colleges. The survey is comprised of items that assess institutional practices and student behaviors that are highly correlated with student learning and student retention. It is a versatile, research-based tool appropriate for multiple uses. Identifying what students do in and out of the classroom, knowing students' goals, and understanding external responsibilities can help the college create an environment that can enhance learning, development, and success.

The CCSSE instrument asks students about their college experiences—how they spend their time; what they feel they have gained from their classes; how they assess their relationships and interactions with faculty, counselors, and peers; what kinds of work they are challenged to do; how the college supports their learning; and so on.

Yes. While a classroom administration remains the best option for most colleges for obtaining acceptable response rates and robust data from the community college student population, colleges can opt to administer the survey online. Contact surveyops@cccse.org to discuss the best administration modality for your college.

Colleges administering the paper-and-pencil version of CCSSE may opt to administer the online version of the survey to their online-only students for an additional fee. Contact surveyops@cccse.org to discuss this option further.

Yes. CCCSE does offer a faculty survey option for colleges participating in the student survey. Offered as a companion to CCSSE, the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (CCFSSE) is an online survey that invites all faculty members teaching credit classes at participating colleges to contribute their perspectives on student engagement. CCFSSE is designed to elicit information from faculty about their teaching practices, the ways they spend their professional time—both in and out of the classroom, and their perceptions regarding students' educational experiences. With a flat-rate fee regardless of college size, CCFSSE is an affordable and effective way to invite faculty into a college-wide conversation about student engagement and success.

CCCSE bases its CCSSE membership fees on enrollment data reported through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). A base fee chart is available for review.

Yes. For an additional fee, a participating CCSSE college may add a maximum of 15 custom survey items. However, many colleges have found that asking 5-10 well-written and appropriate questions will meet their needs while limiting the extension of survey administration time.

Colleges electing to add custom survey items to their administration may select items from the Additional Items Catalog, develop new items, or submit a combination of both. When selecting additional items, be sure to check items against those on CCSSE to avoid overlap.

NOTE: Colleges participating in a CCSSE consortium may need to coordinate the addition of custom survey items with CCCSE staff and/or the consortium leader.

A consortium is a group of three or more colleges with common interests, characteristics, or locations that wish to participate in a CCSSE administration for the purpose of sharing data. Participation in CCSSE consortia is free.

All CCSSE member colleges that participate as part of a consortium benefit from the following:

• the opportunity to administer custom survey items in addition to the core survey at all colleges in the consortium (additional fees apply)
• consortium comparison reports

CCSSE is administered during the spring academic term (February through April).

If being administered in the classroom, CCSSE is administered as a pencil-and-paper survey to students in randomly selected credit courses.

If being administered online, the survey is administered in a format compatible with both computers and mobile devices. Students will need individual codes to access the survey.

The online survey should be sent to all students who are enrolled in any credit bearing or developmental education courses. The college should communicate with these students in advance of the survey being sent and throughout the survey administration process as indicated in the administration timeline.

Historically, the survey has taken students up to 45 minutes to complete.

Survey results are provided to member colleges through institutional reports and Key Findings—an individually tailored executive summary—via the CCSSE online reporting system by July 31 of the survey year. Colleges access the CCSSE online reporting system through the Members Only section of the CCSSE website. The CCSSE online reporting system includes means and frequency reports for all students in the current CCSSE cohort* and college-specific benchmark, means, and frequency reports. College-specific reports include comparisons between the college, like-sized colleges, and the CCSSE cohort and are provided for all students and by enrollment status. Colleges that participate in consortia also receive reports in which the consortium replaces the like-sized colleges' comparison group.

In addition to the standard reports, colleges can request custom benchmark, means, and frequency reports with optional comparisons and breakouts on the Custom Report Requests page.

All colleges also receive access to a downloadable data file and a codebook for use in working with the data file. Additionally, college presidents receive multiple print copies of the Key Findings.

*CCSSE utilizes a three-year cohort (current year of administration plus the previous two years) of participating colleges in all of its data analyses, including the computation of benchmark scores.

Accessing a college's CCSSE Institutional Reports requires a username and password. CCCSE only shares institutional usernames and passwords with the respective college president and a person at the college designated as the institutional contact for CCSSE. One of these individuals should be contacted for information about accessing the college's data.

Yes. Results from CCSSE's annual special-focus items will be displayed in a frequency report.

Yes. Results from custom survey items, if applicable, will be displayed in a frequency report.

Yes. Results from CCFSSE will be displayed in frequency reports. Colleges that do not participate in CCFSSE will receive example reports.

Oversample results are only included in the college's data file, which can be accessed via the CCSSE online reporting system. Special data analysis for oversample data is available from CCCSE for an additional fee.

No. CCCSE is serious about protecting student privacy; therefore, student identifiers are not included in institutional reports, nor are they stored on any web-connected server. However, institutional contacts may submit a request for encrypted data files including student-level identifiers to surveyops@cccse.org.

Users may provide comments and suggestions by clicking on the Feedback page of the CCSSE online reporting system and completing the web form. Additionally, after each survey administration and data release, CCCSE sends a feedback survey to presidents and institutional contacts.

National findings are available on the CCSSE website.

Colleges have access to the CCSSE online reporting system as long as they remain active members in the rolling three-year cohort; therefore, colleges that participate at least once every three years will have continuous access to institutional reports from within the current cohort cycle. Colleges that participate in administrations outside of the current three-year cohort will have access to archived institutional data files. Member colleges should contact CCCSE at surveyops@cccse.org for information on obtaining archived institutional data files.