James S. Fairweather

The Mythologies of Faculty Productivity: Implications for Institutional Policy and Decision Making

A principal belief embedded in promotion and tenure and in annual review decisions is that faculty members should and can be simultaneously productive in teaching and research. This article uses national survey data to estimate by discipline and type of institution the percentage of the faculty who meet this standard.

Beyond the Rhetoric: Trends in the Relative Value of Teaching and Research in Faculty Salaries

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, among all faculty activities research consistently showed publishing and other forms of scholarly productivity as the strongest positive predictors of faculty pay. Classroom teaching was consistently negatively related to pay. Now more than a decade after a host of institutional and state policies enacted to enhance the value of teaching, this paper examines changes in the monetary value of classroom teaching and publishing during the past five years. Results show that spending more time on teaching still means lower pay. Scholarly productivity remains the strongest behavioral predictor of pay although its importance may be stabilizing or slightly decreasing.

Faculty reward structures: Toward institutional and professional homogenization

Data on more than 4,000 full-time, tenure-track faculty in four-year colleges and universities were analyzed to examine the relative importance of teaching, research, administration, and service in determining basic salary. Results showed the dominance of a research-oriented faculty reward structure for each type of institution regardless of professed mission. The same research-oriented reward structure was evident in each type of discipline. Teaching activities seldom were rewarded; in some cases, time spent on teaching was negatively related to salary.

Making the Transition to Postsecondary Education and Training

A nationally representative sample of youth with disabilities who recently exited high school was studied to determine the participation of the youth in postsecondary educational programs. The results show that youth with disabilities participate in postsecondary programs at only one-quarter the rate attained by their counterparts without disabilities and at only one-third the rate attained by economically disadvantaged youth. The relationship of postsecondary education for youth with disabilities to long-term success in employment is yet to be determined.

Variations in Faculty Work at Research Universities: Implications for State and Institutional Policy

Many higher education policies assume that the variation between institutional types is relatively large but that institutions within types are relatively homogeneous. Using case studies, this article explores the substantial variation in faculty work within one institutional type--research universities. We examine the implications of this variation for state policies designed to improve teaching and learning, and for institutional policies meant to achieve a better balance between teaching, research, and service.

Teaching and the Faculty Role: Enhancing the Commitment to Instruction in American Colleges and Universities

This article focuses on the role administrative action, socialization, and self-motivation play in shaping faculty behavior related to the teaching role. Drawing on a national database, the authors introduce a model that examines two teaching-related outcomes: (a) percentage of time spent on teaching and instruction and (b) preferred amount of teaching. The authors discuss policy implications in terms of four areas: early intervention, faculty/institutional fit, work allocation and workload, and rewards.

Myths and Realities of Academic Labor Markets.

Abstract This study examines national data on 4481 full-time faculty in 4-year colleges and universities to develop a model of faculty pay derived from competing propositions about the role of pay in faculty rewards. The traditional view of faculty pay is one based on market segmentation, where teaching-oriented institutions reward teaching productivity and research-oriented universities reward scholarly productivity highly. A competing school of thought holds that pay reflects a single national market for faculty, where the same type of faculty behavior is valued across different types of schools. This perspective is consistent with sociological research, which claims that pay reinforces a dominant cultural norm, prestige achieved through research and publishing, rather than reflecting variation in institutional markets. A third perspective is that pay reflects incentives to reinforce these internal norms rather than to reflect differences in markets. Findings suggest that some form of market segmentation exists, although the segmentation does not follow purported differences between institutional missions. Instead, research-oriented behaviors are valued across most types of institution, leading support to the national market perspective.

Diversification or Homogenization: How Markets and Governments Combine to Shape American Higher Education.

The complex amalgamation of more than 3500 colleges and universities supplemented by corporate-based universities and several thousand proprietary institutions offering some form of post-secondary education and training is best understood as a complex interaction of various forms of markets, governmental policies, disciplinary associations, and institutional actors. To better understand how these forces interact and take effect, this paper defines relevant terms for understanding “diversity,” examines the components of the American “system” of higher education, discusses the ways in which various markets and governmental policies both encourage and discourage diversity, and identifies a model to explain how various factors interact to form the “system” of American higher education.

The Role of Postsecondary Education in the Path From High School to Work for Youth With Disabilities

Youth with disabilities lag behind their peers in participating in postsecondary education, which adversely affects employment options and career earnings. Yet little is known about factors affecting participation. Particularly problematic is the relative importance of disability-related factors—the primary focus of special education and services—and traditional predictors of college going, such as parental education, economic resources, and academic achievement in high school. This study found that for youth with disabilities, the traditional predictors of college going are more important than disability-related factors for enrolling in universities; disability-related factors are slightly more important for enrolling in postsecondary vocational education. A discussion of implications for service planning and implementation is presented.

Reputational Quality of Academic Programs: The Institutional Halo.

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) reputational ratings of faculty often are used as indices of program quality. The underlying assumption is that these ratings are functions ofprogram-related characteristics, particularly faculty accomplishments. Consistent with this viewpoint, King and Wolfle (1987) and Saunier (1985) found that faculty reputations are best explained by program size and faculty scholarly activity. To determine whether program characteristics alone are sufficient to explain reputational ratings, this paper examines the additional contribution ofinstitutional characteristics to explain the NAS faculty reputational ratings. Three technical fields are examined: electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science. Institutional- and program-related composite variables are identified by principal components analyses. For each discipline, a multiple regression analysis shows that program characteristics strongly influence reputational ratings, but an institutional “halo effect” also exists. These findings indicate that faculty reputations and program quality are more complex phenomena than implied by models limited to program-specific factors.