Examines student ratings of teacher effectiveness within a new framework that emphasizes six distinct aspects of validity: content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external, and consequential. Concludes that greater attention should be directed toward consequential validity, particularly how ratings are used on today's campuses and what…

The reliability and validity of student ratings of faculty can be affected by the ethical decisions of those evaluated and evaluating. Systems of faculty evaluation should have their own codes of conduct for students, faculty, and administrators. Nine scenarios offer illustrations. (Author/MSE)

Looks at popular myths surrounding student evaluations of faculty and cites research that provides insight into what is known concerning student evaluations and their use. (EV)

Faculty perceptions of student evaluative information collected by three methods (objective questionnaire items, open-ended questions, and group interviews) were investigated. Faculty regarded the evaluative information to be more credible, useful, and accurate for their own self-improvement than for promotion purposes. (Author/MLW)

A telephone survey was conducted to discover what colleges and universities were doing and calling assessment. Results indicated limited university involvement in activities commonly associated with the current assessment movement (measures of added value or student progress and growth). Reported activities were testing and evaluation. (Author/MLW)

Two studies investigate whether the placement and/or wording (either positively or negatively) of diagnostic rating scale items influenced student responses to the global items in the evaluation of a course of instruction. The Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) developed at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign was used to…

The study investigated the structural corroboration of instructional evaluation information collected from one source (students) by three different methods: responses to objective questionnaire items, written comments to open-ended questions, and group interview results. The three types of information presented a similar general impression of…

In two studies, selections of evaluation form items were negatively worded and presented before or after overall student ratings. Ratings of courses and instructors were not significantly affected by wording. Differences in the global assessment of the courses are discussed. (Author/CM)

Attitudinal and behavioral instructor characteristics considered important by instructors were examined, along with item selection differences between above- and below-average-rated instructors and between instructors of varying academic rank. Teachers highly-rated by students were somewhat more interested in collecting feedback about students'…

Possible biasing influences on student ratings of instruction brought about by students' precourse expectations are examined. Student and course demographic instruction brought about the students' precourse variables were analyzed and affective entry data were compared to course and student demographic information in terms of relative influence on…

Faculty perceptions of simulated college student evaluative information collected by three methods were investigated: open-ended questions, group interviews, and objective questionnaire items. The objective items were from the Instructor and Course Evaluation System (ICES) student rating questionnaires. Open-ended questions were: (1) comment on…

CAFETERIA-type rating systems, modeled after the one developed at Purdue University, allow the instructors being evaluated to select those items which their students will use in evaluating the instructors. Such computer-assisted systems allow the instructor to tailor the evaluation to the particular instructional strategies used. This study…

A study was undertaken in six fall 1978 courses at a large midwestern university to examine possible biasing influences on student ratings of instruction brought about by pre-course expectations of the course. Student and course demographic variables were analyzed as possible determiners of affective entry into the course. These data were examined…

This book addresses issues in higher education faculty assessment with emphasis on the role of assessment in fostering development of individual faculty members and their institutions. Part 1 describes the role of faculty assessment with the first chapter outlining inadequacies in current approaches. The second chapter offers a perspective on…