Evaluating Department Chair and Student Leadership in Higher Education

Abstract

In higher education. assessment of leadership capacities and per- formance of department chairs and students allows stakeholders to evaluate individuals and programs. To that end. this article describes the Individual Development and Educational Assessment (IDEA) Feedback for Department Chairs system. a psychometrically sound in- strument developed for evaluating department chairs at Kansas State University. and the process used to develop a contextually based leadership assessment instrument for students in the university's Leadership Studies program. After collecting data regarding leader- ship of chairs or students. the evaluation process uses a standard or benchmark placing value or merit on the factors measured. The article begins with a background section that presents a framework for accountability in higher education leadership followed by a sub- section that defines and compares the concepts of assessment and evaluation. The third section contains a review of relevant literature on establishing indicators for evaluating leadership in higher educa- tion. context for assessing leadership. and theoretical base. In the fourth section. assessment instruments and evaluation methods are described. The article closes with a summary section.