A New Assessment of Student Life

By Jay Mathews from his November 12, 2002 online edition of The Washington Post

Jay Mathews, the education writer for The Washington Post, calls the day the National Survey for Student Engagement (NSSE or "Nessie") was released "an important day for American colleges and universities." He writes that although many colleges and universities are uncomfortable with the survey, "they appear to be stuck with it and its demand that they listen more carefully to their students."

Mathews compares the fact that U.S. News and World Report's annual college ranking issue now includes some NSSE data to "Al Gore endorsing the Republican platform."

The survey, which has involved 618 four-year colleges and universities over its three years, measures college students' level of engagement by asking, for example, how many written reports they produced in a year, whether they meet with professors out of class, or whether they've studied abroad (forty percent of undergraduates surveyed report spending ten hours or fewer a week preparing for class)

Mathews also notes that most colleges and universities seem "afraid" of NSSE's growing power. He notes and that some universities are engaged in the "hypocrisy" of avoiding showing their results, warts and all, to the public. Many schools refuse to publish the results of their NSSE surveys and some schools do publish their results, but bury the data in their Web sites. "When U.S. News wisely asked colleges for some of their Nessie survey results this year, the magazine was only able to publish data for some schools-86 in the print version and 116 online-because so many colleges refused to make them public."

To view the Mathews' column, visit www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A43289-2002Nov12.