Each year, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement ("CCSSE") presents the results of its annual survey. These results give community colleges objective and relevant data about students' experiences at their colleges so they can better understand how effectively they are engaging their students and identify areas for improvement. This 2005 report reflects responses from 133,281 students from 257 colleges in 38 states. This year, the "CCSSE" report, "Engaging Students, Challenging the Odds," also includes results of the first administration of the Community College Faculty Survey of Student Engagement ("CCFSSE"), which provides insights into faculty perceptions and practices. Because many items on "CCSSE" and "CCFSSE" are aligned, the report includes side-by-side views of faculty members' and students' responses. As the results of both surveys demonstrate, using data to assess the student experience provides powerful, and sometimes surprising, results. After all, individuals' personal data--each person's observations and individual experiences--provide anecdotal information that does not necessarily reflect the experience of all, or even most, students. Only systematically collected data can help individuals understand the typical student experience, and that understanding is essential for any institution seeking improvement in student learning, persistence, and completion of academic goals. [Additional funding for this paper was provided by the Pew Forum on Undergraduate Learning. For the full report, "Engaging Students, Challenging the Odds. 2005 Findings," see ED529081.]