ADVANCING COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND SUCCESS: VALIDATION STUDY OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE SURVEY OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT (CCSSE)

This three-article format dissertation presents a comprehensive examination of the 2017 Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), focusing on its measurement properties across diverse community college student populations. Study 1 centered on the validity of the internal structure of CCSSE. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses showed evidence to support an eight-factor model of student engagement. This model encompasses dimensions such as personal development, interactions with faculty and peers, and institutional support. This study marks a methodological and theoretical shift, advocating for a multidimensional perspective on student engagement in community college. Study 2 employed multi-group confirmatory factor analysis to examine the measurement invariance of the CCSSE across gender, age, race/ethnicity, and enrollment intensity. The results affirmed the CCSSE’s capacity to consistently measure engagement at configural, metric, scalar, and strict levels measurement invariance. This verification underlined the survey’s reliability in capturing authentic group differences. This study also uncovered lower engagement scores among men and part-time students. Study 3 explored the concurrent and predictive evidence of validity of the CCSSE, investigating how engagement indicators correlate with and predict key student success outcomes. It offered new insights into the complex effects of factors such as interaction with faculty and peers and advising services on academic outcomes.