[Englecturers] Teaching Evaluations

[englecturers at lists.ucr.edu]

I will discuss this at the faculty meeting next Monday, but with the end of 
the quarter rapidly approaching, I wanted to make a general announcement 
for the benefit of all English department faculty and lecturers about 
apparent changes regarding the use of the standardized teaching evaluations 
forms.

Last week there was a Chair's forum on personnel related issues. 
Vice-Provost Jury spoke at length, with the support and corroboration of 
CAP Chair Amaea Walker, about the evaluation of teaching in the personnel 
process. Jury noted that new guidelines would be forthcoming, but indicated 
that they would include a much more forceful expectation that all courses 
should be evaluated with the university's numerical forms.  They expressed 
concern about the need for a general standard of comparison for teaching 
and about selective evaluation. Alternative evaluation forms would be 
considered, but only alongside the numerical forms. In the future Jury said 
there would be a negative assumption about why any given class was not so 
evaluated. He said that the failure to use the university forms to evaluate 
even a single class would be viewed negatively.

It has long been the department's policy to recognize both the standard 
university student evaluation forms and a narrative evaluation form that 
was developed within the department. This policy has not changed, but I 
wanted to make sure everyone is aware of an apparent, but as yet unofficial 
change in the higher levels of personnel evaluation with regard to teaching.

Katherine


Katherine Kinney
Interim Chair and
Associate Professor of English
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951 827-1258