Title Details

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The purpose guiding this study was to describe the perceptions of the academic administrators regarding the actual and projected quality efforts in Association of Christian Schools and Colleges (ACSC) institutions of higher education. The results may serve as guidelines in planning and conducting quality improvement programs and in-service training. The survey involved 87 senior administrators and 132 academic department chairpersons from 28 ACSC institutions of higher education who rated their level of agreement on a 21-item Institutional Quality Self-Assessment instrument. Paris (1996) developed the instrument based on the 1995 Education Pilot Criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Coefficient alpha on the data for this study was .95 for the Current Assessment Scale and .96 for the Future Assessment Scale. Ten research questions were posed for this study. Descriptive statistics used were frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations. Inferential statistics used to test the ten hypotheses included correlation, t test, Chi-square test for independence, and multiple regression. Five major findings resulted from this study: (a) The majority of the respondents reported some knowledge of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) concepts, with no significant differences between senior administrators and chairpersons. (b) ACSC institutions of higher education are currently engaging in a range of efforts related to CQI concepts. Projected quality efforts within the next two years received higher ratings than the present quality efforts. (c) Chairpersons and senior administrators agreed on the level of current quality efforts, but chairpersons rated projected quality efforts significantly lower than did senior administrators. (d) Level of knowledge of CQI concepts and number of years in the present position were significant predictors for perceived actual implementation of CQI concepts for senior administrators. (e) Demographics of an institution did not affect perceptions of the academic administrators in that institution as to the actual implementation of CQI concepts. Major recommendations for Christian college and university leaders are to establish a formal quality improvement program and to conduct training in quality concepts in each institution. A recommendation for future researchers is to repeat the study using a different design: include faculty and staff in the self-assessment, compare Christian to non-Christian institutions, employ a case study method on a few institutions, or use an experimental approach.

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