For those seeking ways by which they might serve more knowledgeably and effectively as members of their institution's leadership team--particularly when it comes to issues of institutional assessment and effectiveness--the author strongly recommends active participation in any aspect of the accreditation/reaffirmation process, including serving as…

The purpose of this study was to classify higher education institutions according to institutional performance rather than predetermined benchmarks. Institutional performance was defined as research performance and classified using Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, a statistical method that classifies objects according to specified classification…

This case study describes a time period of 6 years in the history of a school, a period marked by crisis recovery and organizational response to a mandated large-scale reform. Despite its challenges, when speaking of this period a number of the staff reflected on it as a kind of magical moment in time. Twenty years later, I began to wonder what…

Authorizers are as varied as the schools they oversee. Some are responsible for just one charter, while others monitor hundreds of charters serving tens of thousands of students. Some are school districts, while others are independent statewide boards, universities, not-for-profits, or state education agencies. Regardless of their size and type,…

Student success is at the heart of both institutional effectiveness and the community college mission, yet measuring such success at community colleges is problematic. This article highlights three efforts to grapple with this problem--a multistate work group of system- and state-level policymakers to create an improved set of student success…

Rankings and league tables, or Report Cards (RCs), of Higher Education Institutions have become a global phenomenon. Their purpose, it is claimed, is to help "student-consumers" make informed decisions. Yet the degree to which RCs succeed in helping students in their college choice is disputed. Even though RCs are intended for all, which…

This study examined (a) the differences in perceptions of faculty, full-time versus part-time, at a community college in northern Alabama on the importance of institutional effectiveness activities; (b) the factors that affect perceptions of the importance of institutional effectiveness activities; and (c) the effect of academic discipline,…

This article examines Brazilian higher education (HE) politics from a post-colonial perspective. The term "post-colonial" originally referred to a historical period of colonial empires established by European nations. Nowadays, the term commonly distinguishes a field of contemporary studies of "defamiliarisation of the imperial…

Public undergraduate higher education institutions face a number of seemingly intractable problems. Among those problems are cost, accountability and access. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process is designed to help organization of any type address problems of organizational performance. This process has been used by manufacturing,…

Prediction models using graduation rate as the performance indicator were obtained for community colleges in California, Florida, and Michigan. The results of this study indicated that institutional graduation rate could be predicted effectively from an aggregate of student and institutional characteristics. A performance measure was computed, the…

Purpose: The ranking of top universities in the world has generated increased interest in the factors that enhance university performance. The purpose of this paper is to identify economic and cultural factors that affect the number of top ranking universities in each country. Design/methodology/approach: This paper first identifies the number of…

This article demonstrates the value of Foucault's conception of discipline for understanding organizational responses to rankings. Using a case study of law schools, we explain why rankings have permeated law schools so extensively and why these organizations have been unable to buffer these institutional pressures. Foucault's depiction of two…

The Shanghai Education Evaluation Institute (SEEI), expanding from the Shanghai Evaluation Institute for Higher Education first established in 1996, is an institution under the management of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. Among the provincial education evaluation agencies in China, it is by far the largest in terms of its scale and…

Accountability, which is closely related to evaluation of efficiency, effectiveness, and performance, requires proving that higher education has achieved planned results and performance in an effective manner. Highlighting efficiency and effectiveness and emphasizing results and outcomes are the basic characteristics of accountability in higher…

Community college Quality Enhancement Plans (QEPs) typically focus on improving student outcomes. QEPs are in many ways analogous to the campus improvement plans (CIPs) that have become standard practice for virtually all K-12 schools. K-12 campus and district leaders often seek school improvement ideas from other K-12 districts. However, much can…