Measuring Relationships Between High-Impact Practice Participation and Engagement at Community Colleges

Objective/Research Question: The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between High-Impact Practices (HIPs) and engagement at community colleges. The research question guiding this study was: Accounting for student background and institutional characteristics, how do student-level individual participation and institution-level average participation in HIPs relate to engagement measures of institutional practices and student behaviors at community colleges? Methods: Using data from 79,755 respondents to the Community College Survey of Student Engagement from 455 institutions, the relationship between HIP participation and engagement was tested via hierarchical linear modeling. This analysis measured the relationship for both student participation (student-level) and institutional average (institution-level) with three measures of engagement: academic challenge, support for learners, and student-faculty interaction. Results: Almost all student-level HIPs were statistically, significantly, and positively related to these measures; however, the magnitude of specific practices such as class attendance, tutoring, and service-learning held the highest practical significance. Institution-level measures held similar, positive relationships with engagement; however, these relationships were not as wide-spread across all HIPs. Contributions: For the last decade, researchers have related participation in high-impact practices (HIPs) to engagement among students at 4-year institutions. The same fundamental understanding for community colleges was not addressed in the literature until this research. From these results, the student-level relationships advance a fundamental understanding between HIP participation and engagement, whereas the institutional-level relationships highlight specific experiences to guide community college policy and practice. Equity concerns of underrepresented students’ participation are also presented.