Evaluation of the Student Engagement Process in a Criminal Justice Program at a Technical College

This applied dissertation was an evaluation of the student engagement practices offered to students in a criminal justice program at a Midwestern technical college. The problem was that an evaluation of the practices had not been conducted to provide data to indicate whether the current practices were effective. The researcher developed an evaluation tool to assess existing student engagement activities employed within the criminal justice department at the college. The expected criteria of the currently used activities were compared to expected criteria of best practices established for a student engagement process at a community college for vocational education practices and programs. The expected outcomes (criteria) of best practices for a student engagement process at the college criminal justice program were developed from the following resources: (a) a review of literature, (b) a survey administered to students currently enrolled in the criminal justice program at the college, and (c) a survey administered to faculty members of the criminal justice program. The evaluation of student engagement practices currently employed at the college identified gaps between expected outcomes of the current practices and expected outcomes for student engagement best practices model for a criminal justice applied associate degree program. (Nineteen appendices are included: (1) Community College Survey of Student Engagement Document; (2) College Academic Quality Improvement Project Explanation; (3) Academic Quality Improvement Project Questions; (4) Engagement Tips for Students; (5) Engagement Tips for Faculty; (6) Advantages and Disadvantages of Active Learning Techniques; (7) Criteria and Research Standards Linkage; (8) Student Survey; (9) Survey Participation Invitation; (10) Formative and Summative Committee Members; (11) Faculty Survey; (12) Dissemination Protocol; (13) Evaluation Instrument; (14) Student Survey Results; (15) Faculty Survey Results; (16) Evaluation Panel Members; (17) Evaluation Panel Report; (18) Evaluation Report; and (19) Implementation Plan. (Contains 2 tables.) [Degree of Doctor of Education, Nova Southeastern University.]