The Effects of Academic Departments on Student Learning

Abstract

The question of educational effects in higher education is reexamined by studying the effects of academic departments (rather than entire colleges) and employing as criterion measures achievement tests appropriate for the individual departments. Analyses of two different sets of data revealed considerable between-departments variation in educational effectiveness within the same institution, thus suggesting that educational effects research is more reasonable at the department rather than the college level. Analysis of various characteristics of the departments failed to identify any features consistently associated with indices of effectiveness.