Survey says Drury students more involved, challenged
Logan Hoffman
Issue date: 11/28/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
According the National Survey of Student Engagement, Drury students are more involved and challenged by their education than most of their peers at other secondary institutions around the country.
The survey, which was administered by Indiana University, was randomly given to freshmen and seniors at 610 colleges and universities nationwide and asks questions based on five categories: level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experience and how supportive the campus environment is.
In every category of the survey Drury placed at or above the national average. However, first-year students were more likely to give Drury high marks than were their senior counterparts.
According to George Kuh, the NSSE director and professor of higher education at Indiana University of Bloomington, if a score is more than five percentage points higher than the national average it is probably a meaningful correlation.
Drury scored at least five percent higher than the national average in every category except for enriching educational experiences.
"Drury is a place where its faculty set high expectations, but it's also the kind of environment that provides support to meet those expectations," said Dr. Charles Taylor, vice president for Academic Affairs, in a press release. "We want our students to connect with faculty, with each other and with the outside world. The NSSE results tell us we're doing a good job at that."
The NSSE, which surveyed more than 313,000 students for its 2007 survey, is seen as another tool besides the more traditional rankings, such as those from U.S. News & World Report, to gauge the performance of secondary institutions. These traditional rankings typically look at an institution's selectivity, the test scores and grades of incoming students and the financial aid available at a particular institution.
"It gives us a way to measure ourselves in very specific ways, and data like that is always welcome at Drury, where we want to build on the tradition of academic flexibility and excellence," said Taylor.
The survey, which was administered by Indiana University, was randomly given to freshmen and seniors at 610 colleges and universities nationwide and asks questions based on five categories: level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, student-faculty interaction, enriching educational experience and how supportive the campus environment is.
In every category of the survey Drury placed at or above the national average. However, first-year students were more likely to give Drury high marks than were their senior counterparts.
According to George Kuh, the NSSE director and professor of higher education at Indiana University of Bloomington, if a score is more than five percentage points higher than the national average it is probably a meaningful correlation.
Drury scored at least five percent higher than the national average in every category except for enriching educational experiences.
"Drury is a place where its faculty set high expectations, but it's also the kind of environment that provides support to meet those expectations," said Dr. Charles Taylor, vice president for Academic Affairs, in a press release. "We want our students to connect with faculty, with each other and with the outside world. The NSSE results tell us we're doing a good job at that."
The NSSE, which surveyed more than 313,000 students for its 2007 survey, is seen as another tool besides the more traditional rankings, such as those from U.S. News & World Report, to gauge the performance of secondary institutions. These traditional rankings typically look at an institution's selectivity, the test scores and grades of incoming students and the financial aid available at a particular institution.
"It gives us a way to measure ourselves in very specific ways, and data like that is always welcome at Drury, where we want to build on the tradition of academic flexibility and excellence," said Taylor.
Article last update: 11/27/07 at 5:36 PM CST
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