Teachers and school leaders frequently express a disconnect in the purpose and importance of teacher evaluation, particularly as it relates to educator growth. At the same time, some schools are beginning to communicate student growth through a standards-based grading philosophy. One way schools might "walk the talk" of their grading…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" presents the most detailed analysis available of each state's performance against, and progress toward, a set of specific, research-based teacher policy goals aimed at helping states build a comprehensive policy framework in support of teacher effectiveness. In this seventh installment of the…

Purpose: Student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaires are used in many countries, although much current research questions the validity of these surveys. US research indicates that more than 90 percent of academic accounting departments use this performance measurement. This paper aims to focus on the validity of SET data.…

Like the other books in the A-Z series, this book provides practical tools and activities that can be used immediately to improve your practice. This guide offers specific strategies that will help you become a more effective principal. There are 26 chapters in this book, one for each letter of the alphabet. Contents include: (1) Achievement is…

Some professors argue that it is possible to "buy" higher course evaluations by grading more leniently and requiring less work. This study investigated the relations of student effort, appropriateness of class difficulty, and course evaluations with a sample of 463 undergraduates from a mid-sized, Midwestern university. Findings support…

"The findings of this study show that the contract grading device...significantly lowering the student evaluations of the professor /and/ causing students to respond in a negative fashion to every item on the faculty evaluation instrument." (Authors)

This paper inquires into the relationship between the criterion variable of teacher effectiveness and the independent variables of the score on the teacher evaluation procedure and the teacher demographic variables of race, sex, level of teacher certification, area of teacher certification, and years of teaching experience. The ultimate goal of…

Higher education relies on student ratings to evaluate faculty teaching, partly because the alternatives (expert peer appraisals or objective performance criteria) are costly or unavailable. Because student ratings are crucial not only to improving instruction, but also in making or breaking faculty careers, it is important to assure that they…

A series of research studies were examined to investigate the relative effectiveness of teaching evaluations at the college level. The six research variables considered are: teaching effectiveness and its relationship to research productivity; grades given and the relationship to teaching effectiveness evaluation; immediately administered…

Issues pertaining to the validity of student ratings of teaching effectiveness are considered, and research results are evaluated. The following extraneous variables that affect student ratings but are not under the control or influence of the teacher are examined: class size, initial student motivation, academic field, teacher characteristics,…

This handbook on teaching is divided into seven parts. Following the introduction (Part I), Part II presents essays on student and faculty rights and responsibilities, evaluation and assessment, grades, and teaching and efficiency. Part III is a summary of interviews on teaching and research with 20 professors from the University of Kansas…

A handbook for teaching assistants (TAs), teaching fellows, and graduate student assistants at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is presented. After a brief history of the university and an overview of the school's organization, the teaching assistantship role is considered. The official Policy Statement for TAs is included, along with…

This conference report focuses on higher education and includes papers on the following topics: (1) the role of institutional research, (2) management information needs and decisionmaking, (3) teacher effectiveness, (4) student-faculty ratios, (5) professorial attitudes toward work environment, (6) grading and attendance in the instructional…

Approximately 105 references are cited in this annotated bibliography on improving college instruction. Books, reports, and journal articles are included, and most have been published since 1971. Topics covered include: group teaching, teaching styles, learning contracts, faculty development, student-teacher relationships, theories of instruction,…

A discussion of suggested techniques to be used by college department chairmen in handling teacher problems that develop annually during the second week of the semester, just before the release of the mid-semester grades, and prior to and following the final grading period, treats a number of real or imagined difficulties involving students in the…