Working toward promotion and tenure (P&T) is a large part of working as a faculty member at an institution of higher education. Through this process one provides evidence of contribution to the overall scholarly body of knowledge. However, this is affected by changes to cultural norms, administrative processes, and institutional expectations.…

What do citizens of the United States and Germany think about their schools and school policies? This paper offers the first broad comparison of public thinking on education in the two countries. We carried out opinion surveys of representative samples of the German and American adult populations in 2014 that included experiments in which we…

In 1977, a task force on teaching evaluation was formed at the University of California to recommend means of implementing reliable, flexible and effective teaching evaluation for the improvement of teaching and the consideration of teaching in personnel actions. Surveys of faculty and department chairs revealed strong support for colleague…

Reports results of an experiment using peer observation of teachers as part of the evaluation process. The study indicates that a large number of evaluators will produce fair and just evaluations of their peers, with any kind of bias leveling out. Thus, by implication, a small evaluation team could be dangerous. Discusses the improbability of…

This paper describes the tenure review process at the El Paso Community College District, in Texas, providing District policies, instructions for candidates, and sample forms. The first section indicates that the 5-year, criteria-based process provides training for all participants and utilizes candidate self-evaluations, as well as reviews and…

Teachers' questions concerning a proposed master teacher incentive pay plan for Tennessee are stated in this address. Questions teachers raised most frequently centered around four main issues: recertification/tenure, fair evaluations, across-the-board pay raises, and promotion quotas. Summaries of teachers' discussions on each issue are presented…

The task of teacher personnel policies should be to get good teaching done with justice and economy. The current state of teacher personnel policies is that they are reasonably fair to teachers and extremely unfair to students, parents, and taxpayers. They protect all teachers, but they excessively protect the incompetent teacher. A system of…

This paper presents an analysis of a long-term project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) to insure that effective teaching is rewarded. The document attempts to frame the issues and explore the effects of the project first in the area of the role of teaching in the awarding of tenure. Noting the tradition in academe of awarding tenure on…

Teacher dismissal is the culmination of a total process that involves hiring, evaluation, certification, and tenure. School administrators are advised to study the law, obey timetables, consult legal counsel, avoid interpreting law, proceed carefully, document all charges, and put important decisions in writing. Favorable decisions in dismissal…

This paper examines seven specific areas of concern for the administrator of a college physical education department. These major concerns are identified and discussed: (1) financial accountability; (2) staffing patterns; (3) unions in higher education; (4) assessment of staff and program; (5) promotion and tenure; (6) legal aspects of off-campus…

Causes for the dismissal of teachers, which have traditionally been judged to be within the discretionary power of school boards, have been closely scrutinized in recent court decisions. The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted in recent litigation concerning faculty hiring, evaluation, and…

The appropriate questions in teacher evaluation in higher education are: who should evaluate, for what purposes, and using what means. Frequently, evaluation systems provide information for administrative decisions on promotion/tenure and merit. Increased reliance on student ratings of teachers has the disadvantage of distorting factors that may…

A survey was done to assess whether institutions of higher education are recognizing the contributions made by their faculty who are teaching in adult/continuing education and extension programs by integrating these services into the institution's faculty evaluation and reward system. The administrations from over 170 private and public…

Concerns continue to be expressed as to how effective tenure has been in influencing the overall continued effectiveness of teachers who receive this permanent status. Teacher tenure is considered essential for protection of the teacher from capricious and arbitrary dismissal. However, there is concern about the lack of incentive to improve…

Describes the harmful effects of administrators' attitudes of denigrating education, scholarship, and professional activities of the faculty in community colleges and suggests that the faculties counteract this pervasive influence by doing their own research. (EL)