The Status of Evaluation of Student Services and Academic Programs at Medium Sized Junior and Senior Colleges.

The focus of this report is on student service programs of colleges and universities with a student population between twenty and thirty-five thousand. Using 39 senior colleges and 16 junior colleges, administrators of academic affairs and student services areas were asked to categorize evaluation approaches they had participated in. Respondents were asked to indicate the purpose of evaluation, the "advance organizers" or types of variables used to determine information requirements, the source of questions addressed in evaluations, the actual questions answered by evaluation, and the instruments used. Results have it that to effectively study student services at this target level, internal committees and external consultants may evaluate different aspects of the program. Just as in a traditional academic evaluation, policies, procedures and lines of authority must be established as well as a rigid chronological step-by-step procedure must be outlined. (CE)