Many institutions are trying to better understand the factors that drive student success and failure in order to improve the efficiency of degree production. Traditional academic reporting systems are not adequate for this purpose, since they are designed to measure outcomes, not to uncover the factors that influence them. To address this problem,…

This chapter describes how professional and continuing higher education units can develop and sustain successful partnerships with academic departments in order to deliver educational programs effectively to students.

Department chairpersons should guide their departments to meet contemporary challenges by focusing on fostering student learning more effectively, stimulating faculty development, and engaging in curriculum development that responds to new academic syntheses and multidisciplinary approaches. (JB)

A good college assessment program should include departmental level assessment to evaluate what students learn in their major field. Small colleges have unique opportunities and constraints in developing departmental assessment programs. Because of their size, small departments can use labor-intensive methods and have more opportunities for…

Previous college department rankings based on the evaluations of others in the field are examined for their weaknesses, and the requirements of an adequate institutional ranking system are discussed. (MSE)

A survey of 1,321 administrators, 927 trustees, and 1,158 department heads in 332 4-year colleges and universities examined the independent and conditional effects of organizational culture type and level of consensus about mission on the institutions' organizational effectiveness. Implications of results for enhancing effectiveness are discussed.…

The study sought to identify clusters of variables potentially linked to departmental excellence in institutions of higher education, and to determine whether these clusters and combinations thereof could be used to generate rankings of programs which would be consistent with those based on reputation. It studied the interrelationship of…

Organizational climate was examined at nine, four-year public colleges, using data from 2,397 respondents. All were multi-purpose colleges ranging in size from 2,000 to 11,000 students. Data were obtained from the Higher Education Management Institutes' (HEMI) data bank. The HEMI questionnaire section on organizational climate, which is appended,…

This document is the Tennessee Board of Regents' (TBR's) second annual report card, which details the accomplishments of the state's public higher education institutions in four areas: student learning, academic programs, faculty productivity, and financial accountability. An overall status report is provided for the entire state system, followed…

This book examines the organization and functions of the major departments and offices within a college and university and offers explicit advice on the best way to integrate the two to achieve efficient governance. Organizational factors such as reporting structures, types of committees, and how the administration and faculty collaborate to reach…

This study was conducted to examine the usefulness of survey results and the ways in which the results were used, and to gather recommendations for improving the surveys and/or the reports. The Student Satisfaction Survey (SSS) was developed to assess undergraduate students' attitudes toward their major areas, their departments, and the University…

This document reprints a series of articles appearing in the Parsippany, New Jersey, "Daily Record" on October 25-30, 1987 and November 9, 1987. The series stresses that the New Jersey special education system has vastly improved from what existed prior to the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act, but that the system still…

This guide is intended for college and university administrators responsible for designing and implementing a model for assessment of student outcomes and institutional effectiveness. The first chapter explains use of the handbook and introduces the institutional effectiveness paradigm on which it is based. The second chapter explains the model…

In addressing three aspects of teacher education--initial preparation, continuing education, and certification--state departments of education must be outcome-oriented and leave teacher education institutions and school districts free to explore alternate delivery systems. The state's involvement in initial preparation of teachers should be to…