Academic deans and directors: Assessing their effectiveness from individual and institutional perspectives

Over the past decade, higher education institutions have been increasingly held accountable for measurable outcomes. Increases in competition for scarce resources and a decrease in the public's trust in higher education practices have resulted in demands for campuses to demonstrate their productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency. Institutions have responded with a variety of data about student enrollment trends, student retention and graduation rates, job and career placement, and faculty workload studies. The evaluation of administrators, another possible consideration, may well provide needed and appropriate information about institutional effectiveness, but it may also constitute a high stakes evaluatio