The role of precollege data in assessing and understanding student engagement in college

. They come with a variety of highschool academic experiences, exposure to college information, and familysocioeconomic and educational influences, all of which help shape expec-tations and attitudes of what it is like to be an enrolled college student.Research studies show that high school experiences, engagement, and aca-demic achievement, as well as entering expectations and attitudes, areimportant predictors of student success. Therefore, to better understandfirst-year student engagement, it makes sense to consider the backgroundsand precollege characteristics of entering college students.This chapter has two goals. The first is to clarify conceptually the rela-tionship between precollege characteristics and high school engagement,first-year student engagement expectations, and subsequent first-yearengagement and experience. The second is to provide examples of how aca-demic affairs and student affairs use data on precollege student characteris-tics and student expectations to enhance student learning and personaldevelopment. We provide examples from institutions that have used theBeginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE), the precollegecompanion to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE).55