An Investigation of the Contingent Relationships Between Learning Community Participation and Student Engagement Gary R. Pike • George D. Kuh • Alexander C. McCormick Received: 9 June 2009 / Published online: 27 October 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2010 Abstract This study examined the contingent relationships between learning community participation and student engagement in educational activities inside and outside the classroom using data from the 2004 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). Results indicated that learning community participation was posi- tively and significantly related to student engagement, both for first-year students and seniors. For some types of engagement, relationships were significantly stronger for seniors than for first-year students. Analyses also revealed there was substantial variability across institutions in the magnitude of the relationships between learning community participation and first-year students’ levels of engagement. Although institutional characteristics accounted for some of the variability across institutions, a substantial amount of the variability in engagement–learning community relationships remained unexplained. Keywords Learning communities  Student engagement  Institutional characteristics  Contingent effects From modest beginnings in the late 1980s and early 1990s, learning communities have become recognized as high impact educational experiences that are positively related to students’ learning and success during college (Kuh 2008). The positive educational out- comes associated with learning community participation are well documented (Shapiro and Levine 1999; Taylor et al. 2003; Tinto 2000), and a growing body of research suggests that positive relationships between learning community participation and desirable educational outcomes are an indirect result of higher levels of engagement for students who participate in learning communities (Inkelas et al. 2007b; Pike 1999, 2002; Pike et al. 1997). G. R. Pike (&) Information Management and Institutional Research, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, 355 N. Lansing St., AO 127, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA e-mail: pikeg@iupui.edu G. D. Kuh  A. C. McCormick Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA 123 Res High Educ (2011) 52:300–322 DOI 10.1007/s11162-010-9192-1