Gathering Data and Documenting Impact: 2010 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Application Approaches and Outcomes. NERCHE Working Paper: 2014 Series, Issue 1

The Community Engagement Classification is an elective classification offered by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In order to be classified, campuses provide evidence documenting engagement through an application process. Campuses were classified in 2006, 2008, and 2010, and will be classified on five-year cycles from 2015 onward. (Information about the classification can be found on the Carnegie Foundation website.) This mixed-methods, two-part study sought to discover how institutions that received the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification in 2010 approached their application process and to examine the longer term outcomes of that process. How did they undertake a "full inventory" of their community engagement efforts, and what were the outcomes of undertaking such an inventory, beyond receiving the Classification? The study had two purposes: (a) To document the strategies and methods used by successful applicants for the 2010 Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, and (b) to document the cultural shifts experienced by institutions as they developed their successful applications for this Classification.