Key Findings of 2008 CCSSE

Among the key findings of the 2008 Community College Survey of Student Engagement were the following:

Student Effort:

• Seventy-one percent of students surveyed indicate that their college encourages them to spend significant amounts of time studying, either “quite a bit” or “very much.” However, 67 percent of full-time students spend 10 or fewer hours preparing for class in an average week.
• Twenty-four percent report that they always came to class prepared.

Academic Challenge:

• About half (49 percent) of survey respondents report that they often or very often worked harder than they thought they could to meet an instructor’s standards; 11 percent said they never did so.
• Twenty-nine percent of full-time students report that they have written four or fewer papers or reports of any length during the current school year.
•   Sixty-eight percent indicate that their exams are relatively to extremely challenging, while 9 percent find them relatively to extremely easy.

Support for Learners:

• Fewer than half (45 percent) of community college students report that the college provides the financial support they need to afford their education.  Further, when asked about factors that would be most likely to contribute to their dropping out of classes or leaving college, the same percentage (45 percent) cite “lack of finances.”

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