Pace University, a multi-campus research institution in the New York metropolitan area, administered NSSE every year from 2002 through 2012 and the updated survey in 2013. While initially saddened to bring closure to several multi-year studies, campus leaders realized that NSSE 2013 would open a new chapter of NSSE studies providing different perspectives on institutional questions. To celebrate all they had learned and the action they had taken on their institutional assessment results, Pace published a NSSE Retrospective recounting the many ways NSSE has made a difference for teaching and learning, and, especially, for students at Pace.
To investigate institutional concerns such as retention, for example, Pace matches the most recent NSSE data to each fall semester’s roster of first-year students who stayed and those who left. Analysis of these results provides valuable clues to student behavior and suggests actions that faculty and student success professionals might take. A study of sophomore retention at Pace used the NSSE responses of second semester first-year students who would soon be sophomores to provide insight into how to address “sophomore slump” and resulting attrition. Results from the early years of NSSE administration at Pace highlighted the need to pay more attention to student-faculty interaction. To address this need, Pace’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, along with the University Assessment Committee, developed a series of faculty development workshops using NSSE results. These workshops included breakout sessions in which faculty discussed NSSE results and shared best practices. Results from subsequent NSSE administrations showed upward trends in the student-faculty interaction scores. With NSSE 2013, Pace opens a new chapter in its increasingly sophisticated efforts for improvement. The updated survey’s potential for deeper examination of student- faculty interaction through the Engagement Indicators, its expansion of the quality of relationship questions, and new quantitative reasoning items invite fresh insights and fuller understanding of important educational issues.
