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National Survey of Student Engagement 2006

Guide to Interpreting the NSSE Peer Comparison Graphs

The symbols in the NSSE trend graphs represent mean (average) scale or item responses for a particular group of students. For example, the first row labeled SC: Computing/IT in CU-Boulder vs. AAU peers represents mean scale responses, by institution and class level, for 2005-06 NSSE participants, including Arizona, Indiana, Iowa State, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Texas, Texas A&M, UC Davis, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The scales used in the 2006 analyses are similar to those used in 2002. However, because some items used in the 2002 NSSE administration differ from those in the 2006 administration, the 2002 and 2006 scales differ somewhat. For example, a question about discussing grades or assignments with an instructor is included in the faculty engagement scale for 2006, but was not included in 2002. To view a table containing items within each of the scales, see NSSE Items, by Scale.

The red diamond in the graphs denotes CU-Boulder seniors, and the red circle denotes CU-Boulder freshmen. The  green and blue letters denote freshmen and seniors, respectively, at other participating AAU public institutions. The black bars denote freshmen and senior means over all public AAUs. The key linking participating AAU public institutions to the letters used to denote them in the graphs is provided in a separate document, which may be released only to authorized users at CU-Boulder, and to NSSE-AAUDE liaisons at other participating institutions. For permission to access this document, please send an email to IR@colorado.edu.

NSSE items have several different response formats. For example, some items have a five-point scale, whereas others have a four-point scale. Consequently, response values for all items reported here have been re-scaled. This allows items with different response formats to be plotted on one graph that has a horizontal axis ranging from "low" to "high." The dashed vertical line in the center of the graph simply indicates the midpoint of that axis.

CU-Boulder NSSE 2006 Main Page

Last revision 06/15/07