One university presently has an accord with the Department of Labor that helps greatly in satisfying confidentiality needs. However, each university is still forced to undergo litigation independently for treatment of its records. In the meantime, the peer review system may be eroding until underlying legal issues are settled. (MSE)

In 1993, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's governing board mandated peer evaluation for nontenured faculty. Participants in the American Association for Higher Education's peer review project feared the mandate would taint efforts to introduce faculty to collegial approaches to peer review. However, negative fallout from the mandate…

Reviews issues related to American Indian studies programs from Native and non-Native perspectives. Discusses who should study American Indians, the value of American Indian studies for Native and non-Native students, the feasibility of Indian advisory boards for funding agencies and mass media producers, and issues of scholarly review. (SV)

Discusses research as a criterion for library and information science faculty assessment and reviews the literature pertaining to faculty work patterns, evaluation criteria, assessing the quality of research, and publication productivity. Guidelines for evaluating the quality of research publications are presented, and alternatives to current…

A discussion of faculty tenure focuses on the system used at Colby College (Maine). Policies and practices are described, with attention given to the four evaluations made before tenure is awarded, efforts to ensure instructional quality and research productivity after the tenure decision, and the balance of teaching and scholarship in the faculty…

This working paper, one in a series about the priorities of the professoriate, explores what is known about campus initiatives with post-tenure review. Part 1 reviews institutional and systemwide policies and outlines operational characteristics, unifying principles, and implementation strategies. The information was gathered from published…

The formal evaluation process (FEP) is the primary tool provided by most two- and four-year colleges and universities to create more effective teachers. Yet, the FEP has little impact on teaching practice. The FEP serves merely to classify a teacher as a success or failure based on written records and rating scales from observations conducted…

Perspectives on the improvement of college instruction are offered. External forces that focus attention on the quality of college instruction are identified, including: the demand for good teaching by two groups of nontraditional students (low-performing students and adult students); technology, and especially new interactive technologies; the…

Education, training, and employment are addressed in 33 papers from a 1984 conference of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. Papers are grouped in the main categories of professional education and the influence of industry, course development for vocationalism, teachers and teaching, learners and learning, higher…

Six essays are collected on the subject of the quality of institutions and their instruction. In "When Does a College Deserve to be called 'High Quality'," by Alexander W. Astin, various perspectives of quality are outlined and commented upon: the mystical view, reputational view, resources view, outcomes view, and value-added view. Problems with…

Evaluation of administrators and faculty is examined, including the identification of evaluation instruments and clarification of procedures. After a brief discussion of the rationale for evaluation and the need for acting on the outcomes of the evaluation, the process of evaluating the administrator is considered. The criteria of organizational…

The trend toward extending nontenured faculty members' probationary periods beyond the traditional 6 years, is discussed, along with problems faced by faculty at the time of nonrenewal, implications for academic careers, and the issue of multiple standards for faculty evaluation within an institution. (MSE)

The trend toward accountability has focused attention on the evaluation of the performance of the faculty. The evaluation process and an analysis of the policies that guide these processes are discussed. Ten guidelines for the review of evaluation policies are provided. (MLW)

Five views of quality education are identified: the mystical, the reputational, the resources, the outcome, and the value-added. A new approach is proposed with the emphasis on good teaching, unpublicized student evaluations, and disinterested peer evaluation. (Author/MLW)

Research on college teaching supports classifying teaching as much an art as a science. The expectation that student evaluation of teachers can result in exact teacher rankings is unrealistic and stifles the artistry in teaching. However, current evaluation techniques can yield broader classifications of effectiveness and help improve instruction.…