Empowering Institutional Stakeholders to Convert NSSE Results into Action: Diversity, Student Affairs, Faculty, Communicating Results Texas A&M University (TAMU) was opened in 1876 as the first public institution of higher learning in the state. Currently TAMU has a student enrollment of 46,000-plus students (8,500 are graduate students). About 25% of first-year students are the first in their family to attend college NSSE data have been used in a variety of ways at TAMU. Texas law requires public universities to report student satisfaction data to the state. Since 2001, the Texas A&M University system has used NSSE as a tool to report these data. Associate Director of Measurement and Research Services, Mark Troy, sends out NSSE results to all Deans as well as a custom-tailored college-level analysis of the data. Several colleges, such as Agriculture and Liberal Arts, have used NSSE data for their institutional effectiveness reports.
Several task forces at TAMU were established to better measure the institution’s progress in serving students. One of these task forces focuses exclusively on writing. In 2005, another task force identified 20 characteristics a TAMU graduate should possess, one of them being writing effectively. However, when compared to other institutions, the task force found that TAMU students were not performing as well as their selected peers on this characteristic. After targeted analyses of specific NSSE item responses related to communication, TAMU established the University Writing Center, a student calibrated peer-review program, and “W courses”—courses with intensive writing components in many majors. Similar targeted analyses of NSSE items related to student research have been conducted in support of TAMU’s initiative to enhance the undergraduate experience through inquiry/research-based education.
To share NSSE results and encourage campus-wide interest in the assessment process, Troy has made presentations on NSSE to the University Assessment Committee, a group that deals with all assessment-related topics for the University and to some of the college assessment committees. Troy has also found the NSSE pocket guide to be a very useful tool for sharing NSSE results. He and his staff pulled out TAMU’s results related to the guide questions and compiled a report which was sent across campus to academic advisors and admission officers.
