Grant Summary
$68,138 over 24 months. The Mission Perception Inventory (MPI), developed by Marywood University's Dr. Ellen Boylan and administered to a consortium of institutions as an attachment to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) since 2004, is an assessment tool that enables institutions to examine the relationship between constructs in its mission statements and its students' perception of these mission statements in their college experience. The MPI builds on institutional mission research and its relation to student engagement and learning. Marywood University proposes to expand the use of the MPI to include the development of prediction equations and, subsequently, a better means of assessing student perceptions of liberal arts goals. Data will be gathered and tested from a diverse and expanded number of consortium participants. The larger dataset will ensure the statistical power needed to develop prediction equations. A statistical analysis of the data will produce prediction equations for individual question items and goal constructs in the MPI unique to each consortium member institution. Equations will be run on individual institution data to generate an Institutional Mission Engagement Index (MEI), a custom report for each institution that indicates predicted versus actual scores on MPI goal items. The Index will enable institutions to assess individual areas of strength and weakness-information they can use during strategic planning processes to ensure appropriate asset allocation, as well as to guarantee that institutions' programs and activities address actual needs. This research serves to fill a gap in the field regarding assessment of student perceptions of liberal arts goals.