Student Engagement and Institutional Graduation Rates: Identifying High-Impact Educational Practices for Community Colleges

Philanthropists, researchers, policymakers, and practitioners are increasingly focused on a college completion crisis in the United States. Collectively and independently, they have called for increasing the number of adults with postsecondary certificates and degrees as a national imperative. Using the 2007 administration of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), this article explores the statistical relationships between student engagement, as measured by the CCSSE, and institutional graduation rates reported to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Both bivariate correlations and hierarchical multiple regression analyses yielded results that reinforce the salience of student engagement as an important predictor of college completion. Specifically, the CCSSE student engagement benchmarks of active and collaborative learning and support for learners are positive predictors of institutional graduation rates. The article concludes with suggestions around instructional practices and institutional policies to consider for community college leaders committed to the completion agenda.