Faculty, Educational Leadership Programs

Although the work of faculty in educational leadership is dependent in large measure upon the mission of the university of which it is a part, external demands are influencing faculty work. Faculty work has become a focal point among groups both within and external to higher education hoping to impact programs that prepare educational leaders. Some believe that leadership preparation should mirror professional training in business, law, and medicine: preparing future leaders and performing basic research. Others believe that leadership programs should train leaders and little more. Essential to this debate is the issue of faculty evaluation, because the processes for evaluating educational leadership faculty must be aligned with expectations for faculty work.

There are approximately 500 university-based educational leadership programs operating in the United States, usually within colleges or schools of education. These programs have been increasingly called upon to provide a variety of courses, degrees, and services. However, there has also been a growing emphasis within universities of all types (with the exception of community colleges) to reward faculty more for research than teaching or service. As a result, more and more program faculty are being asked to do an increasing number of tasks, from preparing cohorts of students, ranging in size from 6 to 600, for careers in research and the public schools, to contributing to the knowledge base on educational leadership, to working with and contributing to schools in their communities, regions, and states.

Although some institutions have done an adequate job defining the role of leadership preparation programs as well as the work of leadership faculty, many have not. For example, many faculty members are expected to spend increasing amounts of time in local schools though the reward structures at their institutions favor research. Obviously, this has substantial consequences for faculty workload and faculty evaluation.

Historically, university faculty have been evaluated and rewarded based on their performance in three areas: teaching, scholarship, and service, all of which compete for time within the faculty workweek. Many colleges of education continue to rely on the “traditional workload distribution” of 40% effort devoted to instruction, 40% effort devoted to scholarship, and 20% effort devoted to service. However, within different colleges of education, a variety of models can be found. Table 1 presents several typical workload models.

It is essential that the evaluation of faculty work be aligned with their work expectations. Generally, the evaluation of faculty work is driven by the need for formative or summative decision making regarding continuance, tenure, promotion, and merit-based salary increases. The literature in this area is extensive, encompassing close to 5,000 works on topics like faculty evaluation, student evaluations of faculty instruction, peer evaluations, merit review, faculty accountability, faculty portfolios, and personnel process and policy.

The following list includes recommendations for effective practice in faculty

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