Student Ranking of Strategies for Student Success
(from the Results of CSULB Student Responses to WASC Survey 1: Comparisons to Administrators, Faculty, and Staff / Spring 2006)
Students were presented with 12 possible strategies for improving student success and asked to indicate their top five priorities. The percentage of students assigning first through fifth priorities to each of the 12 strategies is shown in Table 1.
- Prepare Students for Employment and Graduate Study was ranked as the first priority by 31.9% of students.
Nearly all students selected this strategy as one of their five priorities (only 15% did not).
- Improve Quality of Instruction was also highly ranked, with 31.6% of students choosing this as their first priority.
Three quarters of all students chose this as one of their five priorities (only 23.7% did not).
- Support Student Mastery of Knowledge/Skills was the third highest rated strategy, selected by 21.9% of students as their first priority.
This strategy could be seen as closely linked to the first two, calling for better instruction to prepare students for life after graduation.
Again, three quarters of all students chose this as one of their five priorities (27.7% did not).
- Prepare Students for Lifelong Learning was the fourth highest rated strategy, selected by 18.5% of students as their first priority.
About two-thirds of students chose this strategy as one of their top five priorities (38.4% did not).
This strategy could be seen as linked to the first two above, by improving instruction to prepare students for life after graduation.
- Establish Student Learning Outcomes was the fifth highest rated strategy, selected by 16.9% of students as their first priority.
Just over half of the students chose this strategy as one of their top five priorities (43.8% did not).
This strategy could be linked to the first four by establishing the important knowledge and skills that students need for employment, graduate study
and lifelong learning, and improving instruction to support student mastery.
Table 1. Student Ranking of Strategies for Student Success:
Percentage of students indicating priority for each question (N=1853)
| Strategy |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
5th |
Not Chosen |
TOTAL |
Prepare students for employment and graduate study |
31.9 |
19.7 |
15.5 |
10.1 |
7.6 |
15.2 |
100% |
Improve quality of Instruction |
31.6 |
17.3 |
12.3 |
8.6 |
6.5 |
23.7 |
100% |
Support student mastery of knowledge/skills |
21.9 |
15.4 |
13.4 |
10.8 |
10.8 |
27.7 |
100% |
Prepare students for lifelong learning |
18.5 |
12.6 |
10.9 |
10.6 |
9.0 |
38.4 |
100% |
Establishing student learning outcomes |
16.9 |
12.4 |
9.9 |
8.7 |
8.1 |
43.8 |
100% |
Facilitate Graduation |
13.4 |
10.0 |
7.9 |
7.8 |
7.2 |
53.8 |
100% |
Keep students enrolled (retention) |
11.3 |
10.6 |
8.7 |
6.8 |
5.0 |
57.6 |
100% |
Engage students in campus life |
10.7 |
9.6 |
9.7 |
8.0 |
8.7 |
53.3 |
100% |
Embrace campus Diversity |
9.8 |
7.6 |
7.9 |
5.7 |
6.8 |
62.2 |
100% |
Involve students in research |
8.7 |
9.1 |
11.5 |
8.0 |
6.2 |
56.4 |
100% |
Involve students in local and global communities |
8.2 |
8.4 |
10.6 |
8.5 |
7.6 |
56.8 |
100% |
Improve campus Climate |
6.0 |
8.0 |
8.7 |
5.5 |
5.7 |
66.2 |
100% |
The remaining strategies were not ranked as a priority by more than half the students responding to the survey. Comments from the open-ended questions provided more information about students' perceptions in these areas (see accompanying report).
