Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey

The COACHE website defines COACHE (the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education) as “A research-practice partnership and network of peer institutions dedicated to improving outcomes in faculty recruitment, development, and retention.” It argues that, “Using COACHE data, more than 300 colleges, universities, and state systems have strengthened their capacity to identify the drivers of faculty success and implement informed changes.”

No. The survey is electronic and to be completed online by all respondents. If you have a disability, which requires appropriate accommodations to complete the survey, please contact the COACHE Team at coachefaculty@abtassoc.com.

The answers from Spelman faculty will be aggregated, analyzed, and summarized. COACHE will generate a survey report that provides a compilation of all quantitative findings from our institution, and that includes comparative survey results from five peer institutions. The report is several hundred pages long, with question-by-question summaries and comparisons that highlight differences by race and gender when sample sizes allow for it. With these data and information about what faculty members value and think of Spelman College, it will be possible for our administrators to identify areas where the professional lives of faculty might be improved.

To raise awareness of issues related to faculty members, COACHE also uses the data to compile reports highlighting major findings and trends. These reports are available for download from the COACHE website. COACHE may also share aggregate reports and individually deidentified data with researchers from other institutions seeking to improve their academic workplaces or for the purposes of scholarly publication.

COACHE conducts and has conducted this survey at 300+ colleges and universities nationally and has matchless expertise and experience in developing and conducting surveys, collecting, and analyzing the data, and disseminating detailed reports on the results. By using this survey, Spelman College is assured of the excellent quality, thoroughness, and reliability of the COACHE product and process. An internal survey will not allow the institution to do a comparative analysis of its faculty’s job satisfaction with those of peer institutions in national context, using the same survey and questions.

Spelman needs to know what you think of your work experience, the level of support you are receiving at work, the reasonableness of your performance expectations, and the kinds of policies that are important to your success at this institution. Without this information, it is not easy for your academic administrators to identify the areas that can and should be improved. Additionally, because the survey directly addresses issues that can impact policies and strategic planning in our institution, it is imperative that you make your voices heard. Your answers to the questions in the survey will pinpoint areas that need immediate attention at Spelman. Your answers will show how Spelman measures up to peer institutions in the context of nationwide results. Your answers will not only help improve our institution, but many others as well.

Survey participants must be full-time tenured, tenure track, and full-time multi-year faculty who have completed at least one full year of service. These groups are the focus of the survey because of the following:

Tenure-track faculty: an important purpose of COACHE is to learn what tenure-track faculty have to say. The tenure-track module was developed after a process that included extensive research among junior faculty. In this module, every question is designed to produce an actionable policy response.

Tenured faculty: the experiences of tenured faculty are quite different from those of their counterparts. So, rather than simply revising the tenure-track faculty module, COACHE developed the module for tenured faculty to focus on what an institution can do to improve the quality of their professional life.

Non-tenure track, multi-year faculty: academic institutions have come to rely on non-tenure-track faculty for a host of responsibilities. Cognizant of the growth in the number of non-tenure-track faculty, COACHE developed a module for non-tenure-track faculty that combines some of the questions asked of tenure-track and tenured faculty with others specific to the non-tenure-track faculty experience.

While the focus of the COACHE survey is faculty with longer history of working at the college, Spelman is preparing its own survey to collect data from new and part-time faculty.

The COACHE survey takes a census approach to eligibility, so it is important that all eligible faculty members be invited to complete the survey. To have confidence in the results, Spelman is counting on as many faculty members as possible to participate. Each response can make a difference in the survey results.

Confidentiality and anonymity are assured in all COACHE analyses and reports. Your names and email addresses are retained solely for the sake of COACHE research, including reminding respondents to begin or to complete their survey and for limited and IRB-approved follow-up studies. Only the aggregate data are shown in the survey report to the college. No identifiers are matched to reported responses.

If clicking directly on the survey link in your email does not open the survey for you, you may find it easiest to simply copy and paste the link into the address bar of your web browser and then hit the "Enter" key on your keyboard. Sometimes, problems may be due to the browser's pop-up blocker. Temporarily disable your pop-up blocker by holding down the CTRL button as you click the link to begin the survey. If you are still having problems, disable your pop-up blocker in your browser's "Tools" menu, under "Pop-up Blocker" (if using Internet Explorer), or under "Options" (if using Firefox). If you are using a third-party pop-up blocker, such as Google Toolbar, you will have to temporarily disable that too.

You will not need to start the survey all over again. If you choose to suspend the survey to take a break, if your computer shuts down, or if you lose your Internet connection, you will be able to resume where you left off. Simply log back in using the original link to the welcome page you received via email. This link is unique to you. Continue where you left off, by clicking the "Continue" button at the bottom of the welcome page. You may change a prior response by selecting a different answer choice before proceeding to the next screen.

The survey duration varies by respondent; it typically takes less than 25 minutes to complete.

Respondents will not be able to download a copy of their responses nor those of other individual faculty. Your access to the institution’s results is a matter to be discussed with the college's administrators. Aggregate reports with deidentified data, highlighting major findings and national trends, are available for download from the COACHE website.

The aggregate results will be compiled in a comprehensive COACHE report to your institution's leadership a few months after the close of the survey. Our institution’s leadership will decide how and with whom to share the results. They may share the results in summary form with board members, academic administrators, and other groups that need to understand what it is like being a faculty member at your college, and with the faculty.

Our institution will analyze information from the survey report and use it in its long-range institutional planning and enhance its understanding of faculty views about the institution. The results can be used to help recruit new faculty members. The most important use is for Spelman College to learn where it should focus attention and resources to make improvements in faculty job satisfaction.

Your names and e-mail addresses are retained only for the sake of COACHE research, including reminding respondents to begin or to complete their survey, for limited and IRB-approved follow-up studies, and in cases where respondents specifically permit COACHE to retain contact information for future studies. COACHE will never further disseminate your contact information. Otherwise, at the conclusion of the survey, they remove any links between the address and its associated responses.

For two reasons, the research data itself will be stored beyond the conclusion of the study on the secure servers of an approved technology subcontractor. First, storing such data allows the principal investigators on this study to conduct cross-institutional analysis, thereby allowing better perspective/analysis to participating institutions. This research data will be used (in an anonymous or otherwise "safe" manner) in publications and presentations, primarily for the benefit of participating institutions who request on-campus visits from the COACHE staff. Second, and more importantly, storing these data will form a baseline for future administrations of the COACHE survey, a factor of significant value to all participating institutions.

The deadline for Spelman faculty to complete the survey is April 11. Please be sure to access and complete your survey before the stated deadline. After the closing date, you will no longer have access to the survey.