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Residential learning communities (RLCs) are residence hall environments designed to deliver academic and social benefits. For decades, many have argued RLCs are an effective means for increasing student success. Yet substantial changes in the defining characteristics of campus housing and student diversity have led to new questions about the impact of living on campus and the benefits of RLCs in particular. Consequently, we investigated the continued efficacy of RLCs as an effective educational practice. Using data from a diverse, multi-institution sample of first-year and sophomore students, this study provides insight into the relationships between RLC participation, student engagement, and perceived gains in learning. [Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of ACPA-College Student Educators International (Boston, MA, Mar 2019).]

With the increasing adoption of learning communities, it is imperative to document their effectiveness. Using a large, longitudinal, multi-institutional dataset, we found that linked-learning communities positively impact students' engagement and perceived gains. We also found that the estimated effect of learning communities varies widely across institutions on various measures. Some learning communities are very beneficial, while others have a negligible impact on students.

This study utilized generalizability theory to assess the context where the National Survey of Student Engagement's (NSSE) summary measures, the Engagement Indicators, produce dependable group-level means. The dependability of NSSE group means is an important topic for the higher education assessment community given its wide utilization and usage in institutional assessment and accreditation. We found that the Engagement Indicators produced dependable group means for an institution derived from samples as small as 25 to 50 students. Furthermore, we discuss how the assessment community should use NSSE data.

Although acknowledged that academic advising helps students adjust to and deal with the challenges of college, little is known about students' frequency of interactions with advisors. Using data from 52,546 full-time, first-year students at 209 diverse institutions, we examined the frequency with which students met with academic advisors and the way these interactions vary by student and institutional characteristics. We found that the typical first-year student met with an advisor 1 to 3 times during his or her first college year; however, the number of meetings varied across student subpopulations and institutional types. [This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Education Research Association, Chicago, IL, April 2015.]

This paper investigated the reliability and validity of the National Survey of Student Engagement's Experiences with Information Literacy module, an assessment instrument developed in collaboration with a group of instructional librarians. After identifying three information literacy-related factors in the module, it assessed the relationship between the factors and students' engagement in Higher-Order Learning and Reflective and Integrative Learning activities and students' perceived gains. The results from these analyses indicated that information literacy activities were positively and significantly correlated with student engagement and students' perceived gains.

Incidents of religious intolerance and discrimination have become too familiar in American society, and today's college campuses are not immune to these incidents. Previous research has shown the negative influence of perceived hostile campus cultures on students' overall learning and development. This study investigated bachelor's degree-seeking students' religious and spiritual discrimination experiences. With particular attention paid to students' self-identified religious/spiritual identities, the study found that students who identify with a non-Christian, world faith tradition more frequently experienced discriminatory acts than their Christian peers. Additionally, the results show that more respect for others' spirituality beliefs on campus was negatively correlated with experiencing acts of religious intolerance. In contrast, increased comfort in expressing religious and spiritual beliefs on campus was positively related to more frequent incidents of religious intolerance.

Postsecondary institutions are frequently forced to respond to discriminatory acts, including those against religious minorities. Such actions can create the perception of a hostile campus for students, which impinges on their learning and development. Research on the campus environment has traditionally focused on race and sex but has largely neglected other important aspects of students' identities like religion and spirituality. This study investigates how the religious/spiritual aspects of the campus environment influenced students' perceptions of the overall campus environment using data from a multi-institutional sample of first-year and senior undergraduates. The multivariate results show that the religious/spiritual dimensions of the campus environment account for a significant proportion of the variance in students' campus environmental perceptions.

A heterogeneous student body is valued in part because diverse interactions among students help create educated and competent citizens and promote learning and development. Campus housing is a primary setting for diverse interactions as students navigate living with individuals who differ from themselves. This study investigated how the roommate assignment process influences interactional diversity and perceptions of the campus environment for first-year students living on campus, and if these relationships differ by race/ethnicity and national origin. On average, students whose roommates were assigned by the institution (as opposed to choosing their own roommates) did not interact with diverse others more often. At the same time, however, Asian, Black and multiracial students who were assigned roommates by the institution perceived a substantially less welcoming campus environment than their same-race peers who chose their roommates. This difference was not observed for White students.

College admissions leaders increasingly desire to incorporate non-cognitive factors like grit into admissions decisions. Consequently, we examined the validity of the short grit scale (Grit-S) using data collected on undergraduates attending 38 colleges. Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), we found that Grit-S does not possess adequate model fit; however, a modified version of the scale does possess this property. Using multi-group CFA, we also found that Grit-S is relatively invariant across multiple demographic groups. Next, we examined the concurrent validity of grit with students' engagement, perceived gains, time spent studying, and grades. These results confirmed previous research that most of the predictive power of grit is contained in its perseverance of effort, not consistency of interest, dimension.

Students' time expenditures influence their learning and development. This study used latent profile analysis to identify a taxonomy of how first-year students spend their time using a large multi-institution sample. We identified four time usage patterns by first-year students titled Balanced, Involved, Partiers, and Parents. Sex, expected major field, on-campus residency, age, Greek-life membership, and standardized test scores were predictive of students' time use patterns. Holding a range of student and institutional factors constant, members of the involved group, on average, reported higher levels of engagement than the Balanced group, while Partiers reported lower levels of engagement. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Creating educated and informed citizens for our diverse democracy has long been one of the objectives of the U.S. educational system. Traditionally, service-learning has been the primary tool for colleges and universities to promote civic outcomes; however, other practices, particularly those requiring substantial student investments of time and energy, also hold the potential to improve civic outcomes. Using data from nearly 13,000 first-year students who responded to the National Survey of Student Engagement's Civic Engagement module, we found that service-learning, learning communities, and research with faculty were positively and significantly correlated to two measures of democratic engagement. The results have important implications for how postsecondary institutions promote civic outcomes. [This paper was presented at the 2016 NASPA Annual Conference in Indianapolis, IN, March 2016.]

This study investigated the correlates of two measures that capture students' perception of the religious and spiritual campus climate. It focuses on how the factors, religious identity and attending a religiously affiliated institution, influence students' perception of the respect for their beliefs and comfort in expressing their views on campus. The results indicate few differences by religious identity in students' perception of the respect for their beliefs, but significant differences by religion in their comfort in expressing their views. Additionally, attending a religiously affiliated institution was positively associated with students' comfort in expressing their beliefs.

Surveys play an important role in understanding the higher education landscape. About 60 percent of the published research in major higher education journals utilized survey data (Pike, 2007). Institutions also commonly use surveys to assess student outcomes and evaluate programs, instructors, and even cafeteria food. However, declining survey participation rates threaten this source of vital information and its perceived utility. Survey researchers across a number of social science disciplines in America and abroad have witnessed a gradual decrease in survey participation over time (Brick & Williams, 2013; National Research Council, 2013). Higher education researchers have not been immune from this trend; Dey (1997) long ago highlighted the steep decline in response rates in the American Council on Education and Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) senior follow-up surveys from 60 percent in the 1960s to 21 percent in 1991. Survey researchers have long assumed that the best way to obtain unbiased estimates is to achieve a high response rate. For this reason, the literature on survey methods is rife with best practices and suggestions to improve survey response rates (e.g., American Association for Public Opinion Research, n.d.; Dillman, 2000; Heberlein & Baumgartner, 1978). These methods can be costly or require significant time or effort by survey researchers and may be unfeasible for postsecondary institutions due to the increasing fiscal pressures placed upon them. However, many survey researchers have begun to question the widely held assumption that low response rates provide biased results (Curtin, Presser, & Singer, 2000; Groves, 2006; Keeter, Miler, Kohut, Groves, & Presser, 2000; Massey & Tourangeau, 2013; Peytchev, 2013). This study investigates this assumption with college student assessment data. It utilizes data from hundreds of samples of first-year and senior students with relatively high response rates using a common assessment instrument with a standardized administration protocol. It investigates how population estimates would have changed if researchers put forth less effort when collecting data and achieved lower response rates and respondent counts. Due to the prevalence of survey data in higher education research and assessment efforts, it is imperative to better understand the relationship between response rates and data quality.

Preparing students to be engaged participants in our democratic society has long been an important college outcome. Over the past few decades, postsecondary institutions have primarily attempted to improve civic outcomes by integrating service activities into their curricula. While research on the effects of service-learning are plentiful, research on how other educationally beneficial activities influence democratic outcomes is scarce. In this study, we find that service-learning may not be the only means for promoting democratic outcomes because other high impact practices, most prominently learning communities, have greater or equivalent relationship to two dimensions of democratic engagement.

This article examines trust perceptions among college/university students before and after COVID-19 campus closures in spring 2020. Using a special NSSE set of trust items, we measured students' trust in key campus actors and social institutions. Our interests included examining trust level differences across student subgroups and the impact of these shifts in sentiment on their relationship with their campus and sense of belonging. We found a trivial change in trust in colleges and social institutions before and after the pandemic. However, this overall result masks important differences between student subgroups. We offer recommendations for educational scholars and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) enroll the majority of Latina/o students in higher education; however, it is unclear how HSIs influence Latina/os' postsecondary experiences. In this study, we examined how the Latina/o student experience differed between students who did and did not attend 4-year HSIs. The results suggest that HSIs generally have positive, but modest, effects on Latina/o's student engagement and self-perceived gains. The differences were more pronounced for first-year students than seniors.

In the absence of extensive data on doctoral institution choice, assumptions by faculty and administrators flourish. Due to increasing calls for diversity, continuing economic hardship, and decreasing yield rates, especially for underrepresented minorities, a highly selective research university (very high research activity) administered two sets of surveys regarding the admissions cycle and institution choice process: one to admitted doctoral students and the other to departmental admissions leaders. Findings include comparison of underrepresented minority to majority student views and comparison of student and administrator/ faculty views of the role of financial support, relative importance of nonfinancial factors, importance of contact with faculty, and understanding of competing institutions in the decision process of doctoral applicants. Implications and practical interventions are discussed.