How Effective are the NSSE Benchmarks in Predicting Important Educational Outcomes?

The Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education attempted to measure non-self reported learning outcomes to with regard to the effectiveness of NSSE. As reported in Change magazine by Ernest T. Pascarella, Tricia A. Seifert, and Charles Blaich their research found that on several measures, the NSSE benchmarks do appear to be valid as a measure of education quality:

The NSSE benchmark scales were designed specifically to provide another gauge of academic quality—students' participation in academic and non-academic experiences that lead to learning—and there is little evidence that such experiences are substantially linked to the academic selectivity of the college one attends (Pascarella et al., 2006). Since our findings suggest the dimensions of the undergraduate experience measured by NSSE benchmarks are correlated with important educational outcomes, they arguably constitute a more valid conception of quality in undergraduate education than U.S. News's.

Furthermore, the NSSE results point to academic and non-academic experiences that may be amenable to improvement through changes in institutional policies and practices. On the other hand, resources and academic selectivity are much harder to change and therefore may form a much more deterministic institutional identity. To the extent that an institution is actually concerned with the quality and effectiveness of the undergraduate education it provides, our findings suggest that it probably makes more sense to focus on implementing practices and experiences measured by the NSSE benchmarks than on those factors measured by U.S. News.

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Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring:

• March 14–16: Baltimore, MD
• March 24–26: Cambridge, MA
• April 5–7, San Diego, CA