A scale of six items from a set of questions designed for a special study of student living arrangements in 2018 that asks students about their physical safety, freedom from harassment and discrimination, feeling comfortable “being myself,” feeling valued, feeling a sense of community, and ability to resolve conflicts where they live.

An estimate of the practical importance of an observed difference or relationship, often used to complement statistical significance. As in this report, effect sizes can be standardized mean differences (mean difference divided by the standard deviation) or standardized regression coefficients. When comparing means, NSSE classifies effects based on their magnitude as follows: small ≥ 0.1; medium ≥0.3; and large ≥ 0.5 (Rocconi & Gonyea, 2018).

A scale of five items from a set of questions designed for a special study of student living arrangements in 2018. The scale asks students how often they worried about meeting regular expenses, worried about paying for college, refrained from activities due to lack of money, chose not to buy academic materials due to cost, and skipped meals due to lack of funds.

NSSE asks the following question only of first-year students: “Do you intend to return to this institution next year?” (Response options: Yes, No, Not sure)

A set of NSSE questions that ask how much students believe their experience at the institution contributed to their knowledge and development in various outcomes such as writing and speaking clearly, thinking critically, working effectively with others, etc

Variables used in statistical models to limit the influence of confounding factors. For example, a model examining the impact of learning strategies on grades might control for major to account for different grading practices across majors.

For further explanation of statistical methods and terminology, refer to: journalistsresource.org/tip-sheets/research/statistics-for-journalists