Friday, October 19, 2001

Instructor evaluations may take on new form
By Kristin Campbell
Staff Reporter

A shortened, standardized teacher evaluation form could replace the 13 different existing forms in an effort to encourage students to write more comments and provide a university benchmark that all professors can be compared to, Mike Sacken, chairman of the university evaluation committee and education professor, said Monday.

Sacken said evaluation data should be compared by campus-wide standards in order to assess the quality of instruction throughout each department.

“We need more accountability,” Sacken said. “(TCU does) not take teaching seriously enough as an institution.”

Sacken said the new form has 14 questions with room for comments after each question. The current forms usually have more than 40 quantitative questions, known as student perception of teaching scores, and then room for general comments on the back.

“I like the new form because it gives students more opportunity to comment on specific aspects of the course,” Sacken said.

Heidi Ohl, a senior marketing and entrepreneurial management major, said she thinks the standard evaluation is a good idea.

“TCU’s mission applies to every department,” Ohl said. “All professors should be measured by the same standards.”

Recommendations from Student Government Association representatives and faculty senate members were used to assist the committee in drafting the most thorough and useful question format, Sacken said.

The committee comprised students and faculty.

Sacken said professors teach for an average of six years at TCU before they are considered for tenure and are then reviewed every three to five years. Every course is required to be evaluated in the fall, but in the spring, each department decides whether tenured professors will be evaluated.

Even if a professor has tenure, negative evaluations and student comments can adversely affect the teacher’s chances of a salary increase, he said.

Sacken said professors are usually the only people who read the written comments, but department chairs and deans can request to see the original evaluations if they see poor average scores.

Biology chair and professor, Wayne Barcellona, said he does not look at the student comments on the required evaluation form, but he does see comments on customized forms the biology department uses to evaluate their professors.

“I use the average scores from the required teacher evaluations when I consider faculty pay raises,” Barcellona said. “(Evaluation scores) do count.”

James Riddlesperger, political science chair and professor, said his department uses the mandatory evaluation forms, along with other evaluation methods, to hold professors accountable.

“Our department takes a holistic approach in evaluating teachers,” Riddlesperger said. “We look at the teacher evaluations very carefully and attempt to respond to them.”

Riddlesperger said he hopes every department takes teaching evaluations seriously and he trusts that they do.

“It’s incumbent upon me to do the best I possibly can,” he said. “I’m going to look at those scores carefully.”

The final draft of the evaluation form will be presented to Provost William Koehler for approval. If accepted, the new form will be required in evaluating all courses starting by at least fall 2002.

Kristin Campbell
k.a.campbell@student.tcu.edu