The Role of Precollege Data in Assessing and Understanding Student Engagement in College

Students do not enter college tabula rasa. They come with a variety of high school academic experiences, exposure to college information, and family socioeconomic and educational influences, all of which help shape expectations and attitudes of what it is like to be an enrolled college student. Research studies show that high school experiences, engagement, and academic achievement, as well as entering expectations and attitudes, are important predictors of student success. Therefore, to better understand first-year student engagement, it makes sense to consider the backgrounds and precollege characteristics of entering college students. This chapter has two goals. The first is to clarify conceptually the relationship between precollege characteristics and high school engagement, first-year student engagement expectations, and subsequent first-year engagement and experience. The second is to provide examples of how academic affairs and student affairs use data on precollege student characteristics and student expectations to enhance student learning and personal development. We provide examples from institutions that have used the Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE), the precollege companion to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).