Assessing Civic Engagement: New Directions for Institutional Research, Number 162

How does one assess community service, civic engagement, and the impact of service learning on a college campus? This volume reviews contemporary research, measurement instruments, and practices in the assessment of civic engagement in higher education, including:

• meta-analyses of students, faculty, institutions, and higher education systems at-large,
• targeted case studies of campus-specific practices at individual institutions,
• efficient and effective ways to gauge the influence of civic engagement on higher education policy, practices, and outcomes, and
• quantitative and qualitative approaches to measuring the effort, importance of, and impact of students’ and institutions’ involvement in community service, community engagement, civic engagement, and service learning on a college campus.

The research ranges between decisions made either as part of institutional agendas, curricular enhancements, or student life initiatives and student and professor involvement in civic engagement activities and supportive attitudes.   

This is the 162nd volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.