Institutional researchers are often tasked with assessing why college-wide initiatives succeed or fail. This can be a difficult task: researchers need to discriminate between multiple feasible explanations, work with limited data, and produce compelling narratives. Process tracing is a qualitative methodology that enables researchers to make valid…

Although faculty are an important part of collecting, analyzing, and using student learning data for improvement, significant barriers often prevent faculty from being involved in assessment work outside the classroom. One potential obstacle to faculty involvement in assessment is the misalignment between the work and faculty rewards structures.…

This naturalistic study focused on the perceptions of leadership and student performance in science from campus leaders in three purposefully selected secondary campuses of ninth through twelfth grades. Each school had experienced an improvement in student passing rates on the science TAKS test that exceeded the state's percent improvement in…

The purpose of the phenomenological study was to examine and understand public high schools, grades 9-12, which have implemented the full integration of global competency skills as an integral part of their core mission. This study also explored, how school leaders ensured that global competency skills are developed, implemented and integrated…

Research on women in leadership has received growing attention in recent years. But not enough studies have investigated the way women construct leadership and management of the academic department. This article reports on the findings of an inquiry into the experiences of women heads of academic departments (HoDs) at universities in South Africa…

Locally controlled public schools are one of the cornerstones of our nation's democracy, yet many schools are not preparing students for success. Far too many students are not graduating, and many of those who do graduate are woefully unprepared for college or a meaningful career. Successfully initiating and sustaining meaningful improvements in…

Management information needs vary as a function of departmental complexity, goals, and services. A model is proposed to enable institutional researchers to serve better the distinctive information needs of academic departments and their chairmen. (LBH)

Reports results of surveys received from universities concerning aspects of departmental operation which include type of institution, numbers of faculty with academic appointments, salaries, budgets and graduate program stipends, sources of support and areas of study/research. Some data are represented by tables and graphs. (RT)

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to analyze traditional duties of academic administrators in light of fundamental changes in the ways universities operate, increasing demands in teaching, research and costs management, and a looming shortage of qualified faculty, to determine need and opportunity for a better administrative design.…

The report summarizes questionnaire responses from 454 university department heads concerning information collected in the most recent self-study or review of their department. The responses included judgments about the importance of collecting each information element for (1) internal department use for porgram planning and improvements, (2)…

This study describes three action cycles I identified retrospectively and examines the processes I underwent through the lens of research literature dealing with leadership. I then provide a retrospective account of my reflections on my actions over a four-year period. As the head of the Elementary School Department in a teacher education college,…

The use of management information systems (MIS) in the department fiscal system is described in this paper, with a focus on development of a planning model prior to MIS implementation. Planning stages involve a task force to evaluate the situation prior to implementation. Applicability of simple and advanced management information systems are…