An Approach to Departmental Assessment and Faculty Assignments

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An Approach to Departmental AssessmentandFacult
y Assignments
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Sources of Data

• The National Research Council Report on
  Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States
  (1993)
• The Delaware Study of Faculty Workload
• The National Science Foundation web sites on
  Institutional Profiles (http//www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs
  /profiles/)

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The National Research CouncilReport on
Research-Doctorate Programs

• 274 Universities
• 41 Doctoral Disciplines
• (eligibility criteria 500 PhDs granted by 50
  programs)
• 3,634 Programs
• 78,000 Faculty Members

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Purposes of the 1982 and 1993 studies (NRC, p.
vii)

• To assist students in selecting graduate programs
• To inform administrators and other officials
• To provide a large, recent data base.

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Two types of data were collected

• Descriptive statistics of research-doctorate
  programs PERFORMANCE statistics
• Views of faculty peers relative to program
  quality REPUTATIONAL rankings

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Data Collected I

• Number of faculty
• Full Professors
• With grant support
• Publishings
• Publications per faculty
• Citations per faculty

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Data Collected II

• Total students
• Women
• Minority
• US citizens
• Source of support
• Total Ph.D. degrees granted
• Median years to degree

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Strengths

• National perspective
• Objective data that is externally verifiable
• No self-reported data
• Comparative data across a wide range of
  disciplines and universities

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Weaknesses

• Reputation data not supported by productivity
  data
• Major disciplines are not included
• Mixes public and private institutions in rankings
• Humanities data insufficient
• Skewed toward sciences and journal articles

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Using the NRC Data for Assessing Institutional
Quality

• Allows each department to analyze its standing
  with respect to reputation and productivity
  measures, and to design strategies for
  improvement.
• Provides information across departments that
  helps administrators invest institutional
  resources effectively.

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CHEMISTRY
Selected Characteristics of Research-Doctorate
Programs
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National Research Council Data
ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION BEHAVIOR
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TOTAL NUMBER OF DEGREES MEDIAN YEARS TO DEGREE
By Academic Discipline (Over a 5 Year Period
1987-88 to 1991-92)
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TOTAL NUMBER OF DEGREES MEDIAN YEARS TO DEGREE
By Academic Discipline (Over a 5 Year Period
1987-88 to 1991-92)
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Benchmarks for Faculty Assignments

• Criteria
• Objective
• Comparative
• Peer Institutions
• Sources
• Delaware Study of Faculty Workload
• National Research Council
• NSF sites and Web Casper

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Some Examples of Benchmarks (Teaching)
Teaching Organized Class Sections - Per
Academic Term
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Some Examples of Benchmarks (Research, Other)
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FACULTY TEACHING
(ECONOMICS EXAMPLE)
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FACULTY PUBLICATIONS
(ECONOMICS EXAMPLE)
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Relevant Information
(ECONOMICS EXAMPLE)
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Advantages of this Approach

• The data are comparative and national
• Most of the data are assembled by independent
  agencies
• Most of the data are not self-reported
• The evaluation and assignment involves all
  members of the unit