What Happened to Community College Student Engagement After the Pandemic?

ABSTRACT This study explores (1) whether and to what extent community college students’ engagement has changed and (2) whether the relationship between student engagement and students’ intent to re‐enroll in college has changed since the pandemic. Using data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), we use t ‐test and logistic regression. Our results show that post‐pandemic students are generally as engaged as pre‐pandemic students, except for using the academic support service and collaborating with classmates. Post‐pandemic students are also slightly more engaged in academically challenging activities, although they are assigned fewer reading and writing assignments. The relationship between each of the student engagement benchmarks and students’ intent to re‐enroll is positive and statistically significant for both groups. We discuss the implications of the findings and provide suggestions for practitioners on how to facilitate student collaborations and improve access to academic support services.