If You Build It, They Will Assess It (or, An Open Letter to George Kuh, with Love and Respect)

Abstract

In the scholarship of evaluating student assessment, no group does it as well as the Indiana University scholars engaged in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE). More than 1,400 institutions employ the NSSE as a tool for better understanding their students'involvement, integration, and engagement. However, this special issue of The Review of Higher Education raises genuine concerns in the design and psychometrics of the SSE instruments. The authors carefully set out the structural flaws they have identified and offer thoughtful suggestions to improve the project. The preface urges NSSE respondents to these respectful critiques to show the same sensibility that the featured authors have shown to NSSE, beginning by acknowledging the critical literature.