Do College Student Surveys Have Any Validity?

“Social desirability bias, or providing survey responses that make the respondent look favorable to others, has been extensively documented in the field of survey methodology (see, for example, DeMaio, 1984; Nederhof, 1985), but has been little studied in the area of college student survey response.”

“Cohen’s rule of thumb for effect sizes is now recognized as rigid and, for the most part, useful only for power analyses (McCartney & Rosenthal, 2000); researchers instead rely on the research context to determine the substantive relevance of an effect size.”

“…relies on students’ selfreported assessment of academic engagement, a factor that some have identified as problematic due to inaccuracy (Bowman 2011; Porter 2009); however, Bowman (2010) found that first-generation students tend to be more accurate in self-reports than other students, which could…”

“However, it is important to acknowledge that grades, especially self-reported GPAs, as a measure of learning have been called into question and also deemed unreliable (Porter, 2011).”

“While the validity of student surveys in general and NSSE specifically has been challenged (Porter, 2011), leaders of NSSE and its counter-part, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement, offered a point-by-point response to the critique (McCormick & McClenney, 2012), and 2-and 4-year…”