Methods of performance evaluation used by governing boards to assess the professional performance of university presidents

This study attempted to provide insight into the ways governing boards assess the performance of the presidents whom they hire. Further, it spoke to the issue of leadership at the highest levels in the field of education. The purposes of this descriptive study were to identify the methods of presidential evaluation used by governing boards of 119 universities having student FTEs of fewer than 10,000 and to determine whether the members of these governing boards would rate as very important the same leadership characteristics which are described as very important in the literature of higher education.;Two questionnaires were developed to gather data. The first questionnaire, which solicited information on the methods used to evaluate university presidents, was sent to the chairs of the boards which fit the study's profile. The second questionnaire was designed to gather ratings of leadership characteristics from the chairs as well as from the members of their entire governing boards.;Data gathered from respondents, groups which included twenty board chairs and a total of 73 board members, were analyzed to determine whether boards used formal or informal means of evaluation and how ratings of leadership characteristics provided by the boards compared with the rating of very important as presented in the literature. Data were presented in both tabular and narrative formats.;Two hypotheses were tested. Hypothesis I was stated as follows: Governing boards use formal procedures for evaluating college and university presidents. The data did not support the hypothesis and it was rejected. Hypothesis II was stated as follows: Governing boards will rate as very important the same characteristics of leadership which have been designated as very important in the literature. The compiled data supported the hypothesis and it was accepted.