The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a relationship between participative management and perceived institutional effectiveness in North Carolina community colleges. Along with determining this relationship, the study endeavored to determine perceptions, in the form of desired items, that employees want to see in their colleges that have a bearing on both participative management and institutional effectiveness. This study gathered usable data from 277 (76.9%) respondents assigned to administrative, faculty, and support staff positions. These respondents were a representative sample of the population. A significant relationship was found between participative management and institutional effectiveness. Seventeen of the 23 desired effectiveness practices and seven of the ten desires participative practices included in this study were found to be practices that employees want to see in their colleges. It was also found that length of service in current position does not significantly influence perceptions relative to institutional effectiveness. Although the management of community colleges cannot be entirely relinquished to employees, institutions whose leaders encourage participative management may experience enhanced institutional effectiveness. The expertise of the faculty and staff should be coupled with the talents of administrators in arriving at the proper blend of what is and what ought to be in community colleges. / Ed. D.

Regional accrediting agencies and state governments are requiring colleges to evaluate the effectiveness of their institutions. In North Carolina the General Assembly mandated the state Board for Community Colleges to develop a list of critical success factors that measure the effectiveness of the North Carolina system. The purpose of this study was to assess that System's critical success factors as they relate to individual community colleges. This study determined which critical success factors were important and which ones were feasible to use by individual colleges in their institutional effectiveness plans. A Critical Success Factor Questionnaire was used to survey presidents and institutional effectiveness officers (IEOs) of each of the 58 community colleges. Survey data were analyzed using means, standard deviations, Spearman's rank correlation coefficients, and Kendall's coefficient of concordance. / Ed. D.

The uneven evolution of the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS) from dissimilar educational institutions has created diverse views among the leaders and policy makers of the system about what are appropriate goals. The problem of this study was to determine what goals are important and the extent to which agreement existed with respect to goal statements from the Community College Goals Inventory (CCGI). These goal statements were ranked by 399 state administrators and board members and local community college administrators and board members of 22 of the 24 comprehensive community colleges within the NCCCS. The 20 goal areas were analyzed to identify and compare present and preferred goal priorities chosen by each of the respondent groups using Spearman's rank order correlation. The findings of this study indicated that there was consensus among all groups concerning the highest and lowest current and preferred goals. A high degree of agreement was found concerning the goals "vocational/technical preparation,'' “general education," and “accountability” as being highly important to all respondent groups. “Humanism/altruism”, "social criticism," and "cultural/aesthetic awareness" were considered the least important goals. / Ed. D.

The purposes of this study were twofold: 1) to determine the predictability of the amount of county current expenditures for the North Carolina Public School System by using nineteen county characteristics, and 2) to determine the predictability of the amount of county current expenditures for the North Carolina Community College System by using these same nineteen county characteristics. All data were collected from the year 1985 with the exception of general population data, which were secured from the Census of 1980. Factor analysis was performed on the nineteen predictor variables in order to remove multicollinearity between the variables and to reduce the data to a manageable size for subsequent multiple regression I analysis. Stepwise regression was then utilized to determine which factors best predicted the amount of local revenues spent for educational current expenditures. Factors 2, 3, and 5 were significant predictors for per pupil local current expenditure for the public schools. Factor 2 included median years of education completed by the general population, high employment, and high income variables. Factor 3 described the relationship with per capita property value and per capita property tax. It also included the migration rate in the general population. Factor 5 included per pupil state current expenditure for the public schools, percent of high school juniors passing the North Carolina Competency Test, and percent of labor force in new and expanded industry. Factors 2 and 4 were significant predictors for per pupil local current expenditure for the community college. Factor 4 represented per pupil state expenditure for the community college and percent of white pupils in the community college. / Ed. D.