The evolving landscape of higher education has forced many institutions to reorganize, remove administrative layers, and subsequently, reexamine criteria and processes. In particular, efforts to consolidate and combine departments has prompted a need to explore options for a systematic and objective framework for evaluating performance. This paper…

This article examines a little-studied review genre of academe: letters written for faculty retention, promotion, and tenure (RPT). Given their centrally evaluative nature, these documents have potential to illuminate academic community values, particularly those related to faculty work. Of specific interest in this study is the evaluative…

Prompted by the current debate over tenure, the spread of teacher's unions, and the concern of legislators for providing a uniform teaching load in institutions of public higher education, there seems to be great interest in the whole area of faculty evaluation, as well as in the improvement of college and university teaching. The central purpose…

Chairs of 175 industrial and technology education programs indicated that 84.8% have a system of posttenure faculty review; nearly 30% said that over 10% of tenured faculty were performing below standard. A majority felt that posttenure review was marginally or not effective. The continuum of review procedures ranged from authoritarian to…

Faculty members of small universities should be judged by their teaching ability, not by their publications. (Author)

Systematic post-tenure evaluation, uniformly and universally applied, preserves the strengths of tenure while allaying public suspicions about tenure and concerns about faculty vigor and accountability. Failure to address increasing public concerns will otherwise increase the likelihood of external regulation. (MSE)

A comparions of student and administrative opinions concerning faculty competence based on time allotted to teaching or research reveals differing and largely incorrect suppositions by both groups. (WM)

Discusses the pros and cons of using student evaluations to determine faculty promotions. Indicates that it is essential to include self-evaluation, peer evaluation, and administrative review along with student evaluations to present a complete profile of an instructor. (JOW)

Stresses the need for English department chairpersons to gather and present information about teaching, to see that some consistent form of faculty evaluation is maintained, and to work at identifying teaching competence and supporting teaching excellence throughout the year. (GW)

Most college and university administrators claim to care deeply about the quality of teaching at their institutions. But, too often, their actions belie their words. Consider, for example, the following questions. Which candidate for a faculty position is usually viewed as more attractive, the promising researcher or the promising teacher? Who…

Between August 1973 and September 1976, a study was conducted of the process of assessing faculty in Oregon's colleges and universities. The two major objectives were to describe and analyze the factors influencing tenure and promotion decisions, and to develop incentive models to positively influence the quality of instruction. A faculty…

In order to determine whether student evaluation of faculty performance is related to the grade received by the student, a study was conducted in a large lecture class at William Rainey Harper College (Illinois). Of 300 students, 75 were systematically selected for the sample. The students were asked to list all courses for which they were…

Significant improvements in the quality of teaching and research can be achieved by college deans and presidents who have the courage to hire only the best available and terminate the unproductive and to devise the least disruptive means of doing so. Available from Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., 345 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10154. (Author/MSE)

Research on the validity of student rating scales of teacher performance is inconsistent, and the issue of why the scales are used needs examination. Until their criterion validity is raised to correlations of .7 to .8 or construct validity can be established, results should not be used in making tenure decisions. (MSE)

The Oregon State System of Higher Education recently completed a 3-year study entitled Faculty Teaching: Models for Assessment of Quality. Over 400 teaching and administrative faculty selected on a random or stratified basis answered the following questions: (1) What factors are considered in the assessment of faculty performance? (2) What…