Development of a Scale for the Student Assessment of Academic Advisors.

This study reports the development of an index for the student assessment of academic advisors. A total of 197 undergraduate students at 2 large universities volunteered to participate in a survey focusing on their advisors' skills and competencies. Drawing from a literature review, researchers had developed a 33-item scale that was pilot-tested with 75 undergraduates. After refinement, a 27-item scale was administered to the participants. Psychometric analyses demonstrated that the instrument was both reliable and valid, but the analyses suggested that a 15-item form of the instrument would be preferable, because the inter-item reliability for these 15 items was very high. The 15-item instrument is a potentially valuable tool for improving advising and rewarding excellent advisors. (Contains 3 tables and 30 references.) (SLD)