Content area
Full Text
LAW & ORDER: Student Ratings of Instruction
In the higher education system, the learning environment is supported by two separate, yet mega-important, groups: the professors who find value in SRIs and those who do not. These are their stories.
Ka Chung!
Introduction
Student ratings have "grit" (Duckworth, 2016), as much as any inanimate object could possibly have. They have sustained blunt-force trauma over and over again, but remain on top of the heap as the dominant approach to evaluate teaching. They provide outrage-ready headlines to academicians. The topic serves as clickbait for Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, higher education journals, listservs, and blogs (http://studentevaluationsareworthless.blogspot.com/), and fodder for critics and doom and gloom naysayers shouting to impeach student ratings. Linse (2017) identified 50 of these articles over the past decade, most of which were negative and unsupported by research evidence. In recent years, aspersions of "worthlessness" have become commonplace (Barre, 2015a, 2015b; Berrett, 2015; Boring, Ottoboni, & Stark, 2016; Braga, Paccagnella, & Pellizzari, 2014; Burt, 2015; Gooblar, 2017; Kamenetz, 2014; Nilson, 2012; Quintana, 2017; Schuman, 2014; Sproule & Valsan, 2009; Stroebe, 2016; Uttl, White, & Gonzalez, 2017).
(SIDEBAR: Despite my reputation for writing on scholarly topics with scrupulous impartiality and unfettered fairness, student ratings can cause unwanted fettering. I will try to control my fettering. We now resume this introduction with the lyrics to "New York, New York.")
Start spreading the news: Student ratings are not leaving today or anytime soon. However, as the title of this article indicates, student ratings are not the only option to provide evidence in the evaluation of teaching. There is a broad range of alternatives to consider beyond student ratings in the delicate decision-making processes to improve teaching and determine the promotion and tenure of faculty. Yet, despite the constant barrage of attacks on the integrity, reliability, and validity of student ratings, their use in higher education is at an all-time high.
So what do student ratings actually contribute to decisions about teaching and faculty? Should they be abandoned? Should you focus on the other options? This article examines student ratings and 14 alternatives to guide your plans to evaluate teaching in your department. Let's start with a brief review of ...
Student Ratings
The student rating...