The National Benchmark

The largest dataset of its kind

Your institution's score means little on its own. The NASCE places it against more than ninety thousand student responses gathered since 2009, so you can see where your campus stands and which institutions it stands beside.

91,792
Student responses
91
Institutions
28
States
154
Administrations
What stands behind the number

A comparative base built since 2009

Every NASCE administration adds to a shared national record. That record is what turns a single institutional POP score into a position you can act on. As of the current dataset, it holds 91,792 student responses across 154 administrations at 91 colleges and universities in 28 states.

91,792Student responses
91Institutions
154Administrations
28States represented
Where your institution would land

One score, placed on a national scale

Institutional POP scores in the benchmark run from 3 to 52. The national median is 21, which sits in the Established tier. Half of all benchmarked administrations fall between 16 and 26. A new administration returns your score and places it on this same scale.

Emerging
Evolving
Established
Integrated
Pervasive
01121314152
National median 21
Lowest benchmarked score 3Middle half 16 to 26Highest 52
See where you would land
Compared with institutions like yours

Your peer group is built in

The benchmark carries the traits of every participating institution, so your score can be read against the whole field and against the schools that resemble yours: by size, by control, by affiliation, and by region.

By enrollment size
Under 2,000  45 2,000-5,000  65 5,001-10,000  23 Over 10,000  18
By control
Private  100 Public  52
By affiliation
Secular  100 Religious  52
By region
Northeast  72 South  54 Midwest  16 West  10

Counts reflect 151 of the 152 administrations in the comparative base; one carries no enrollment band on file.

Joining the benchmark

How a new institution is added

1

Administer the NASCE

Your students complete the survey over a short field window. SPARC runs the administration end to end.

2

Your POP score is computed

Responses are scored into a single institutional POP score, along with the eight areas and the EGC civic measures.

3

Placed against the field

Your score is set against the national distribution and against peer institutions of similar size, control, affiliation, and region.

See how the score is built, and roughly where your campus might land.
Open the POP Explorer
NASCE SERVICE AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT FROM SPARC Know where you stand

See your institution's real number.

Co-directed by Dr. Mathew Johnson and Dr. Donald Levy.

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National dataset as of July 2026. Figures are drawn from the NASCE database of 154 administrations across 91 institutions; institutional POP statistics reflect the 152-administration comparative base, which excludes two non-comparable samples.