Board Development and Its Impact on the Effectiveness of North Carolina Community College Trustees

Abstract

The first part of the study examined North Carolina community college trustee demographic characteristics such as race, gender, age, and occupation. Trustees were randomly selected by appointing agency: the governor's office, the local board of education, or the local board of county commissioners. The study found that trustees were predominantly White, male, college educated, over the age of 50, and were currently or formerly involved in some aspect of business or education.

The next part of the study focused on trusteeship by examining the difference in responses between first-term trustees and trustees serving two terms or longer. With almost no significant differences found between the two groups, trustees indicated that they overwhelmingly looked to the community college president for guidance, and over half of the respondents indicated that their boards as a whole evaluated their performance once every year or once every two years. Most trustees perceived that members of their governing boards worked well together all or most of the time. In addition, most governing boards provided funding for board development, and most trustees had experienced at least two or more board development opportunities.

The final part of the study focused on the impact board development had on board effectiveness. A six-dimensional framework for board effectiveness, developed by Chait and associates, was used in the study, and the Board Self-Assessment Questionnaire (BSAQ), designed and revised by Holland and Blackmon, was implemented as the instrument of evaluation. Consistent with scores of various other organizations, the overall score for the education dimension was relatively low. In addition, correlation alpha, and regression analyses found that the six-dimensional model was significant yet contained weak predictor variables of effectiveness. Additional research is needed in the area of board effectiveness using the Chait model; however, this study provided baseline BSAQ sub scores for those who wish to continue a follow-up study in North Carolina or for those who want to compare the results with other community college systems.