Interpreting the Benchmark Comparisons Report

Text Box: To focus discussions about the importance of student engagement and guide institutional improvement efforts, NSSE created five clusters or "benchmarks" of effective educational practice: (1) Level of academic challenge, (2) Active and collaborative learning, (3) Student-faculty interaction, (4) Enriching educational experiences, and (5) Supportive campus environment. This Benchmark Comparisons Report compares the performance of your institution with your selected peers or consortium, selected Carnegie peers, and all 2006 NSSE institutions.1 In addition, page 8 provides two other comparisons between your school and above-average U.S. institutions with benchmarks in the top 50% of all U.S. NSSE institutions and high-performing U.S. institutions with benchmarks in the top 10% of all U.S. NSSE institutions. These displays allow you to determine if the engagement of your typical student differs in a statistically significant, meaningful way from the average student in these comparison groups. More detailed information about how benchmarks are created can be found on the NSSE Web site at www.nsse.iub.edu/html/2006_inst_report.htm.