Proposal to the Roosevelt University Faculty Senate

March 13, 2002

Preamble

In its first contract with the Roosevelt Adjunct Faculty Organization the University agreed to set up a group to study the issue of student evaluation of teaching. In September 2001 the University Senate voted to ask the University to eliminate the present system of student evaluation of teaching by the end of academic year 2001-2002. In response to these developments, Provost Thompson convened a Task Force on the Evaluation of Teaching. It consists of four adjunct faculty members and four full-time faculty members, one from each of the four colleges represented by RAFO, and a faculty observer from the Chicago College of Performing Arts. The Task Force met several times between November 2001 and March 2002. It was charged to deliberate on the evaluation of teaching and to make recommendations to the University Senate on a new system for evaluation of teaching that would serve three objectives:

1. To support individual and collective efforts to improve the quality of teaching.
2. To facilitate the evaluation of teaching for decisions regarding retention, reappointment, promotion, tenure and other personnel matters.
3. To ensure all students a direct and important role in the evaluation of teaching.

Early on it became clear that there is no single, ideal system for the evaluation of teaching. Given the disparate nature of teachers, subject matter and student audiences at Roosevelt, all choices involved balancing issues of practicality, thoroughness, fairness and applicability in specific instances. The recommendations of the Task Force are a product of consensus, not for a perfect system, but for one the members believe can be fair, effective and workable.

Evaluation of Teaching

The Task Force on the Evaluation of Teaching proposes that the Roosevelt University Senate adopt the general principles on the evaluation of teaching that are given below.

• Student evaluations of teaching will continue to be administered in the form of in-class surveys to ensure that students have a direct and important role in the evaluation of teaching. Pure distance learning courses will be accommodated online.
• The long form and the short form of the IDEA survey will be adopted in fall term 2002. The IDEA system includes a faculty information form whereby individual faculty members provide information about course objectives, pedagogical approach(es), course requirements, and other contextual matters. The information supplied by faculty is weighted with student responses on the surveys to create reports that fairly reflect the learning goals of the individual faculty member. The IDEA surveys, developed by the Individual Development and Educational Assessment Center at Kansas State University, have been refined over a period of years and across many institutions so that the validity and reliability of the results are maximized.
• IDEA surveys will be administered in every regularly scheduled section in spring, fall, and summer terms beginning fall term 2002.
• The long form will be used for faculty who are approaching critical decision points in their careers. For other faculty, the choice between the long form and the short form will be made at the level of academic unit.
• Critical decision points for tenure-track faculty are reappointment to first three-year contract, reappointment to second three-year contract, tenure, and promotion. Critical decision points for adjunct faculty are eligibility for bargaining unit membership and eligibility for remediation.
• Training will be made available to full- and part-time faculty so that they may accurately interpret the results of the student evaluations of teaching, both to support their own development as teachers and to enable them to participate knowledgeably in peer review processes.
• Deans, directors, unit heads, and others with responsibility for hiring and evaluating full- and/or part-time faculty will be trained in the interpretation of the statistical reports that will be compiled by the IDEA organization.
• Portfolio review will take place at critical decision points in a faculty member’s career.
• Documents in the portfolio will include course syllabi and copies of IDEA surveys including narrative sections. Part-time faculty must submit student evaluations in their portfolios to be eligible to be rehired. Other documentation may include course handouts, copies of examinations, representative samples of student work with teacher comments, videotapes of teaching, lecture notes, statement of teaching philosophy, or evidence of teaching awards.
• In-class observation of teaching by peers will be encouraged on a voluntary basis for the purpose of improvement of teaching and remediation. It will not be included as a formal element in the evaluation of teaching for purposes of retention or advancement.
• The University will provide resources and faculty development opportunities for full- and part-time faculty to learn about acceptable standards for syllabi and portfolios and to improve their teaching in response to information derived from analysis of the student surveys and peer review of portfolios.

In conclusion, members of the Task Force emphasized the importance of supporting individual and collective efforts to improve the quality of teaching at Roosevelt University. These faculty development efforts must go beyond instructor evaluation to include allocating the necessary resources to provide full-time and adjunct faculty with an array of services to help them refine their teaching skills. 

The proposal above refers to several forms developed by The IDEA Center at the University of Kansas.  These are available at that center's web page (http://www.idea.ksu.edu/products/Sturatings.html#SurveyForm). In particular, you can find both the long form and the short form of the IDEA survey (the links here to the forms are to PDF files, for which you'll need Acrobat Reader).