Dive Brief:
- A new study of the changes in faculty evaluations between 2000 and 2010 shows that student ratings are still the source of information most widely used to assess teaching.
- According to 410 dean respondents in the survey, the top five criteria used to evaluate overall faculty performance in 2010 were classroom teaching, followed by campus committee work, student advising, research, and publications.
- The report, published in the May-June issue of Academe, states that colleges are becoming more structured and systematic in gathering information for evaluations, and they are reexamining and diversifying their approach to evaluating classroom teaching.
Dive Insight:
After student ratings, rounding out the top five sources of information used in evaluating teaching performance in 2010 were chair evaluations, self-evaluations, dean evaluations, and classroom visits. All of the top five criteria were used more in 2010 than in 2000, including a jump in the percentage of respondents reporting that they “always used” classroom visits to 60.4% from 40.3%. Among the criteria used in evaluating faculty, only 18% of the survey respondents in 2010 considered personal attributes to be a major factor, down from 28.4% in 2000. As the report notes, that’s a good thing for faculty, considering that "personal attributes" is “an elusive phrase that for years has allowed some deans and department chairs to ease undesired faculty members out of jobs or to deny them tenure or promotion.”