ASU Mid-South earns high marks for Student Engagement

ASU Mid-South earns high marks for Student Engagement

WM campus’s scores exceed 90 percent of other community colleges

ASU Mid-South Arkansas State University Mid-South has developed a reputation for designing and implementing innovative programs and services in an effort to increase student engagement and success. The effectiveness of these efforts is measured by the Community College Survey on Student Engagement (CCSSE) completed by students.

This year’s CCSSE survey results reveal that ASU Mid-South’s scores for three of five benchmarks were higher than 167 suburban colleges and higher than 90 percent of colleges nationwide in two benchmarks. More than 700 colleges and 433,000 students participated the national survey.

The Center for Community College Student Engagement, University of Texas (Austin), designs and administers CCSSE. Survey questions assess institutional practices and student behaviors that correlate highly with student learning and retention. These questions are grouped into five benchmarks and scored. The five benchmarks are Active Collaborative Learning, Student Effort, Academic Challenge, Student-Faculty Interaction and Support for Learners.

ASU Mid-South’s top benchmark scores among colleges nationwide and suburban-classified colleges are Student Support, Student Effort, and Student- Faculty Interaction.

ASU Mid-South scores for the two remaining benchmarks, Active and Collaborative Learning and Academic Challenge, exceeded the national aver- ASU

age.

Mid-South first used CCSSE to measure student engagement in 2005, and again in 2008 and 2015. A review of scores from 2005 to 2016 reveal improvement in all five benchmark scores with the largest increases in Academic Challenge and Student-Faculty Interaction, 12 percent and 21 percent, respectively. In congratulating faculty and staff for their efforts, ASU Mid- South Chancellor Dr.

Debra West stated, “Focus on student engagement must remain a high priority of our college. As we engage in the development of a new long-range plan for the college, at its core, the plan must reflect an integrated college-wide effort to increase student success.”

Dr. Chuck Welch, President, Arkansas State University System, applauded ASU Mid-South’s efforts to increase student engagement. “The ASU system recognizes the urgent need to increase the number of our citizens with a postsecondary credential or degree. We operate in a global economy and must endeavor to a create 21st Century workforce with the requisite knowledge and skills to compete.”

Arkansas State University Mid-South, located in West Memphis, is a comprehensive community college offering opportunities for completion of GED, certificates, and associate degrees, with an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students.

For further information about the CCSSE result, please contact Michelle McMillen, Director of Institutional

Effectiveness, at

mlmcmillen@asumidsouth. edu or (870) 7336782. For information on attending the college, visit the campus, call the Admissions

Office at (870) 733-

6728, email admissions@midsouthcc.ed u, or see the website at www.asumidsouth.edu.

From Diane Hampton