| In recent years, demand for greater accountability in higher education has forced virtually all states to develop systems for demonstrating quality and efficiency at public colleges and universities. Developments in the state of Alabama prompted this study of the perceptions of two key groups of stakeholders regarding the appropriateness of certain performance indicators for 2-year institutions.; A survey was developed and administered to randomly selected administrators and faculty members at all Alabama 2-year system colleges. Questions primarily addressed the suitability of some of the most commonly used performance indicators for use at system colleges. Findings revealed widespread agreement on many commonly used indicators such as employer satisfaction, student pass rates on licensure exams, job placement, student satisfaction, instructional program certification or accreditation, retention, headcount enrollment, graduation rate, credit hour production, administration and management efficiency, external funding, adequacy of library resources, graduate performance on tests, teaching load of full-time faculty, test scores of entering students, and ratio of FTE students to FTE faculty.; Although both faculty and administrators thought the use of performance indicators important to system colleges, faculty members were significantly more positive. Significant differences were also found among the different types of 2-year colleges regarding eight survey items. Technical college respondents rated retention, graduation, and training-related employment significantly more important than community and junior college respondents. Community and technical college respondents rated job placement and pass rates of graduates on licensure exams more important than junior college respondents, and community and junior college respondents rated transferring students' GPAs at 4-year colleges more important than technical college respondents. Junior college respondents also rated transfer rate significantly more important than their community and technical college counterparts.; One significant difference was found among colleges in the different geographic regions of the state. South Alabama colleges were significantly more likely to consider alumni contributions an important performance indicator. One significant difference was also found among respondents according to their years of experience with their colleges. Respondents with 5.5–10 years of experience were more likely to rate alumni contributions an important indicator. |
