Describes the use of teaching portfolios to evaluate faculty at Florida's Miami-Dade Community College, focusing on the development of portfolio criteria between 1991 and 1994. Discusses positive and negative opinions expressed by faculty during a two-year evaluation of the project. Presents a revised portfolio developed in response to comments.…

Based on documents in the ERIC database, examines issues surrounding community college faculty evaluation. Focuses on the purpose of faculty evaluation, what evaluations measure, who performs evaluations, and such problems facing evaluation programs as lack of administrator concern over faculty success and faculty resistance to evaluation. (28…

Discusses the importance of revising university promotion and tenure standards according to Ernest Boyer's argument for reconsidering scholarship in light faculty roles, arguing for differential application of standards based on diversity of missions and goals. Examples of one university's application of Boyer's classifications to promotion and…

Encourages using a portfolio as a means of tracking and assessing a teacher's strengths and achievements. Explains what a portfolio should include: (1) background information; (2) current statement of teaching philosophy; (3) course syllabi and descriptions; (4) course portfolio; (5) sample assignments and handouts; (6) samples of student work;…

In this article, the author discusses the issue of collegiality that is used as a code for hating ethnic, racial, and female faculty at tenure time and cites some real stories of professors from U.S. colleges and universities who were denied tenure because of their national origin and background. Academics may strongly feel that collegiality has…

This presentation addresses issues of faculty evaluation in the university context and the effective use and usefulness of portfolios. A section on portfolio content validity asks about the right things to include and briefly discusses scholarship, teaching, and service components. A section on criterion-related validity asks whether rival…

This paper discusses the reliability of college faculty peer evaluations. Three evaluation methods are compared: observation; impressionistic; and documentation review. The quality of information provided by each method is examined based on five areas: the purpose of the data being collected; what is being measured; who is responsible for doing…

This paper presents eleven questions which must be raised concerning the use of student evaluations of community college teachers. Ten questions deal with the political, sociological, and psychological implications of the student evaluations currently in use. The last question concerns a legal matter--the use of unvalidated tests. (Author/DC)

As part of an effort to promote teaching excellence, a faculty committee studied the evaluation of teaching at the University of Arizona and developed recommendations for further improvement and support of teaching and of the evaluation of instruction. The following topics are discussed: (1) judging the reputation of a major scholarly institution;…

Merit pay is discussed in three sections, focusing on: (1) an approach to the measurement of the merit of college teachers that avoids much of the subjectivity and potential favoritism that has caused other merit systems to fail, the procedure which evolved over a period of years, and a review of its evolution; (2) results of several surveys of…

Since there is talk about managing academic departments, using the jargon of the industrial community, higher education professionals might do well to investigate the techniques that industrial managers use to evaluate their own personnel. Three management principles used in personnel evaluation can be isolated: (1) regularity of evaluations; (2)…

Reports a study examining the dimensions (factors) used by students to rate instruction in basic science courses. (JT)

Reviews the theoretical and empirical literature on the influence of student-rater personality characteristics on the ratings they give their instructors. Included are conclusions, recommendations for further research, and a list of 45 references. (JT)

In contrast to Professor Irene R. Kiernan's negative impression of the validity of student ratings of faculty (Community and Junior College Journal, April, 1975), the author, by examining recent research findings, concludes that the majority of studies point to a positive relationship between student ratings and student learning. (Author/NHM)

The purpose of this study was to determine what relationships exist between course and instructor evaluations and student/instructor preferences regarding classroom instructions. The specific null hypothesis explored was: The congruencies on ratings of the personal preferences of students and the personal preferences of instructors will not be…