The Chronicle: Method of Using Student Evaluations to Assess Professors Is Flawed but Fixable, 2 Scholars Say
Student evaluations of instructors are deeply imperfect tools that are often misused by college administrators — but the evaluations should not be scrapped, two scholars said here on Saturday at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science. Each scholar sketched a model for reforming the faculty-assessment system.
“At best, student ratings provide a weak measure of instructional quality,” said Anthony G. Greenwald, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington. “They’re heavily influenced by grades, and they’re also influenced by class size.”
Mr. Greenwald presented an analysis of the student ratings of more than 14,000 courses given at his university from 1997 to 2001. He was especially interested in exploring how average course ratings varied by department. Courses in Washington’s dance department, for example, typically received high student evaluations, while chemistry, physics, and mathematics courses tended to rate poorly.
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