An Experimental Investigation of Factors Affecting University Promotion Decisions: A Brief Report.
Current pressures for use of student ratings focus heavily on their use as evidence about teaching effectiveness for decisions about faculty promotions or salary increases. Hind [2] reports that Stanford faculty members perceive teaching as having much less weight than research in influencing decisions about promotion and salary. They believe that teaching should have more weight (but still not as much as research). They recognize student ratings as a source of relevant data. Thus there is evidence that faculty members (at least at Stanford) will accept input from student ratings in the personnel decision-making process. Miller [3] indicates that student ratings are a usual part of systems of faculty evaluation. Although data on the validity of student ratings are important in determining whether student ratings should be used, we have no data on how they actually influence decisions. We need to begin to determine what kind of contribution student ratings can make to such decisions. One first step is to determine what information decision makers use from reports of student ratings. The pilot study here reported provided data relevant to the question: Does the type of information provided about teaching competence affect promotion decisions?