Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2006
Publication Source
William & Mary Journal of Women and the Law
Abstract
Research on student teaching evaluations is vast. An examination of this research demonstrates wide disagreements but also substantial consensus of authority for the proposition that student evaluations should be used only with extreme care, if at all, in making personnel decisions. A number of reasons cause administrators to use teaching evaluations for personnel decisions. The literature, however, is virtually unanimous in its condemnation of norming student evaluations in order to rank classroom performances. Current cases on academic freedom indicate some retrenchment by the Circuits from broader pronouncements in earlier Supreme Court cases. This paper concludes that the use of non-validated student evaluations alone without any other criteria for teaching effectiveness raises substantial problems in faculty retention and promotion decisions. It also suggests that such an approach in the right case might violate academic freedom and the First Amendment.
Inclusive pages
167-202
ISBN/ISSN
1081-549X
Document Version
Published Version
Publisher
Wm. & Mary J. Women & L.
Volume
13
Issue
1
eCommons Citation
Lau, Terence and Wines, William, "Observations on the Folly of Using Student Evaluations of College Teaching for Faculty Evaluation, Pay, and Retention Decisions and Its Implications for Academic Freedom" (2006). Management and Marketing Faculty Publications. 11.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/mgt_fac_pub/11
Included in
Business Administration, Management, and Operations Commons, Entrepreneurial and Small Business Operations Commons, Marketing Commons
