Evergreen Grades Well for Participation

By The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Dec. 6–OLYMPIA — Students at The Evergreen State College are more likely than those at comparable schools to say they get plenty of chances to work with peers and professors, according to the eighth annual National Survey of Student Engagement, which was released this week.

The survey at 610 public and private schools nationwide, sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, measures five benchmarks of student interaction — level of academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, interaction with faculty, chances for internships or travel, and a supportive campus environment.

Randomly selected freshmen and seniors are asked a series of questions meant to measure various benchmarks, survey administrators said.

In each, Evergreen got a higher score than other schools its size, according to the survey results.

According to results shared by the college, as compared with other students in the survey, Evergreen students said:

–They more frequently asked questions and contributed to discussions in class and gave class presentations.

–They more often worked with other students on projects during class and outside of class.

–They were more likely to discuss ideas from reading and classes with others outside of class.

–They more often discussed ideas from class with faculty members outside of class.

–They more frequently received prompt feedback about their work than students at other institutions.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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