A literature review suggests a measure of consistency, stability, and validity of student ratings of teacher performance, with specific variables found to have a positive relationship with the ratings. It also appears the use of the ratings can lead to improved instruction under certain circumstances. (Author/MSE)

Issues in the debate over student evaluation of college faculty are discussed, including appropriate measures of teaching effectiveness, reasons for assessing teaching, reliability and validity of student ratings, and how assessments are conducted. Guidelines for implementing a system of regular, institutionwide evaluations are outlined. (MSE)

A discussion of student ratings of faculty looks at problems in measurement and interpretation, including such factors as the ability of raters to evaluate complex behaviors, the salience of personal characteristics in judging task performance, and emphasis on the students as consumer. (Author/MSE)

Term papers written by 42 students in two subjects were assessed by their classmates and by lecturers in the relevant subjects. No difference occurred between lecturers and students in average marks, variations in marks, agreement in marks (reliability), or relationship between marks and performance in final examinations (validity). (Author/MSE)

A description is presented of the construction and use of a questionnaire for evaluating freshman science courses. It uses a forced choice technique to measure student expectations, influence on students, and faculty objectives. Field tests are used to estimate the procedure's validity and reliability. (Author/MSE)

A study of possible test bias in the Arabic and Hebrew versions of a standardized scholastic aptitude test used in Israel found a slight overprediction of performance for Arabs, but the findings appear to be more consistent with psychometric than cultural bias. (Author/MSE)

A study investigated the usefulness of two U.S. instruments for measuring college student perceptions of teacher effectiveness. Although the measures showed internal consistency, most items were seen as appropriate, and each item was considered of importance by some students, further analysis suggests cross-cultural validity may be weak.…

London School of Economics and Political Science (England) course evaluations were used to examine whether teachers assessed differently across courses have distinguishing characteristics, and whether courses assessed especially discrepantly for one teacher have distinguishing features. Results show course-level characteristics (class size, number…

A study with 503 applicants to the University of Helsinki (Finland) medical school compared the predictive validity of multiple-choice science tests and a "learning-from-text" test (LFT) designed to measure deep-level text processing. Results indicated the LFT was the best predictor of student academic progress in basic science courses.…