Because of Quality
As your institution considers campus environment survey options, campus educators can take comfort in knowing that the CECE surveys are constructed to provide high-quality data for research and assessment purposes. The CECE surveys are also constructed to lead to specific concrete actions that can help change your campus to be more inclusive and equitable, by fostering environments that engage and reflect the diverse backgrounds and identities of all students.
- Beyond Climate Assessment, and Toward a Shared Vision for Equity: Climate assessment surveys are important tools to identify and understand problems that exist within the campus climate. CECE surveys are critical tools to fix those problems. The CECE surveys are designed to center your entire institution’s focus on the aspects of campus environments that allow diverse populations to thrive. In doing so, they provide tools for you to rally inclusion and equity advocates and supporters across the campus to move toward a common vision. And, CECE tools encourage all campus community members to focus on creating optimal campus environments that promote success for students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds.
- Grounded in National Data about What Works: The CECE surveys are based on over three decades of empirical research and climate assessments that uncover the kinds of institutional environments that allow diverse populations to thrive and higher education. Each time a new CECE survey is generated, expert qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods researchers utilize research and assessment data from campuses across the nation to construct an instrument that centers on elements of the institutional environment that affect the experiences and outcomes of diverse populations most.
- Rigorous Development, Testing, and Validation Processes: The CECE survey instruments go through a rigorous process of development, testing, and validation. After the instruments are constructed using existing research and assessment and data from across the nation, they undergo examination by subject matter expert panels, and are revised according to expert feedback. Then, systematic methods are utilized to assess the content and construct validity of the surveys. The instruments are then piloted with a handful of campuses and refined for dissemination nationally.
- Statistical Controls for Threats to Validity: Recent research has raised questions about the limitations of self-reported games. To address this limitation, the CECE surveys include items that are designed to minimize the threats to the validity of self-reported gains. For example, the CECE student surveys include pre-college self-reported gains.
- Designed for Your Entire Campus: The CECE surveys are constructed based on data gathered from disciplines across higher education. We have specific surveys for particular populations (i.e., students, staff, and faculty) to help campuses understand how all of these groups are experiencing the environment, identify areas of strength and opportunity, and inform specific actions that can help transform your campus. This means that the survey items are relevant to everyone on your campus and the data can inform action for everyone within your campus community.
- Time-Tested Reporting Procedures: The NITE staff have modeled their data analysis and reporting procedures after the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). These procedures have helped institutions better understand their campuses and take actions that lead to improvements in the student experience for over a decade.
- The Foundation for Meaningful Partnerships: The NITE staff has made a commitment to invest significant time and energy in partnering with institutions that administer the CECE surveys. They are already collaborating with campuses around the nation to advance their equity initiatives and engaging in long-term efforts to transform and create more equitable environments. NITE is doing this by assisting campus educators in creating promising culturally relevant and responsive policies, programs, practices, educational opportunities for students that allow them to thrive (e.g., opportunities that meaningfully engage their religion, race, ethnicity, gender, communities where they grew up).