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> Assessment > 2006 NSSE Benchmark Report

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Institutional Benchmark Report was published in August 2006.  This report uses five "benchmark" indicators to rank Mountain State University (MSU)  against three different groups: Selected Peers; Carnegie Peers; and the NSSE national norm.  Although MSU's 2000 Carnegie Classification was "Baccalaureate/Associate", this will change to the 2005 Carnegie classification of "Master's Level I" for future reporting.

The results of this survey should be used to identify areas for improvement in MSU's curriculum, pedagogical practices, student-faculty interaction, community involvement, diversity interaction and student support.

MSU began using NSSE in 2004.  The information provided here compares MSU's 2006 results against the 2005 results, provides a trend analysis from 2004 and provides the 2006 results.

2006 to 2005 Benchmark Comparison

The 2006 administration of NSSE allows a mean comparison to see what improvements we have made on these benchmarks.  The results of this comparison are as follows:

  1. Level of Academic Challenge - First-year students improved their mean score from 52.0 to 53.7 which exceeded all three peer groups.  The senior's mean score declined from 57.9 to 57.2 but still remained higher than the mean of all three comparison groups.

  2. Active and Collaborative Learning - First-year students improved their mean score from 36.4 to 43.1 which exceeded all three peer groups.  The senior's mean score also improved from 47.5 to 49.6 and fell within the range of the three peer groups.

  3. Student-Faculty Interaction - First-year students mean score improved from 29.0 to 34.5 which exceeded all three peer groups.  The senior's mean score also declined from 39.5 to 38.6 and fell within the range of the three peer groups.

  4. Enriching Educational Experiences -First-year students mean score improved from 22.1 to 25.2 and fell within the range of the three peer groups.  The senior's mean score improved from 35.4 to 37.1 and fell within the range of the three peer groups.

  5. Supportive Campus Environment - First-year students mean score improved from 59.2 to 61.5 which exceeded all three peer groups.  The senior's mean score also declined from 58.2 to 55.4 and fell within the range of the three peer groups.

The following link contains the comparison data and charts:

2006 MSU Benchmark Ranking

The results for the 2006 benchmark report compares MSU against a selected peer group, a Carnegie peer group and the NSSE national norm and are presented in the links below along with NSSE's introduction. The details for each benchmark shows both MSU's standing and survey items that determined the benchmark score.