Faculty mentoring in higher education: How can the institution benefit

Through the design and implementation of an evaluation system for a mentoring program in a community college, this study answered the following research questions: (a) How can program evaluation be used to continuously improve the quality of a faculty mentoring program in a community college setting? And (b) To what extent does a faculty mentoring program prepare new faculty members for their jobs? A concurrent, nested, and qualitatively dominant mixed methods research design, with Stufflebeam's (1983) CIPP model as the evaluation framework, was used for this evaluation research study. Utilizing the CIPP model in its entirety provided the ability to assess every dimension of the program performance system, from the identification of stakeholder needs to program design, development, and implementation. This study elicited foundational data that addresses the lack of empirical research regarding the systematic evaluation of mentoring program outcomes in a community college setting, provided evidence that community college faculty members receive benefits similar to those documented in mentoring literature and begin receiving said benefits within a short period of time, and demonstrated that a qualitatively dominant evaluation provides sufficient evidence to judge the merit or worth of a program while providing a holistic view of stakeholder experiences. This study also demonstrated how community colleges may use needs assessment to evaluate faculty performance in order to identify, design, develop, and implement an appropriate performance improvement intervention.