Student Ratings of Teaching Effectiveness for Faculty Groups Based on Race and Gender.

Introduction End-of-course student evaluations of teaching effectiveness have been conducted in most institutions of higher education since the 1960s. Student evaluations of teaching effectiveness are used primarily for feedback to faculty for instructional improvement and for making personnel and administrative decisions such as promotion and tenure, merit increases, and awards whether local or national (Marsh & Roche, 1993; Abrami, d'Apollonia, & Rosenfield, 1997). Both of these rationales for use of student evaluations are somewhat controversial (Rifkin, 1995; Donahue, 2000). While student evaluations of teaching effectiveness are the most common measure of effective teaching (Cashin, 1988), their use as legitimate indicators of quality in teaching is questionable (d'Apollonia & Abrami, 1997; Greenwald & Gillmore, 1997; Marsh & Roche, 2000). Likewise, the usefulness of information gathered through student evaluations to improve teaching is unclear (Centra, 1993). Although student evaluations are being increasingly used in personnel decisions (Centra, 1993), there is continuing debate revolving around the kind of measures that should be used in making decisions about promotions, tenure, or salary increases (Cashin & Downey, 1992; Marsh & Dunkin, 1997). The main question is whether there are effective alternative means to evaluate teaching. According to DeFina (1996), a combination of the three forms of faculty evaluations (student, peer, and self) provides a more credible means of assessment than any one method alone. As student evaluations are widely employed in colleges and universities in the United States, the College of Education (COE) at a Southern Research I university is no exception. The college adapted a 36-item student evaluation form that is used in many of the college's nine departments. Some departments in the college have created and standardized a student evaluation form that more adequately reflect their discipline. Whereas, select faculty in some departments have elected to use the online version of the student evaluation form; online student ratings are under consideration on many college campuses because of their potential benefits over traditional paper and pencil systems (Academic Imp). However, faculty in the College of Education use some form of standardized student evaluation. Of the 36 items on the evaluation form, the College of Education emphasizes the last two items (#35--overall value of course, and #36--overall teaching ability), which, presumably, are used heavily in making personnel decisions regarding promotion, tenure, and merit increases. This practice contributes to the ongoing discussion over the kind of measures used for making decisions about personnel. The Southern Research I University The College of Education at the Southern Research I university is one of the largest in the nation and serves an enrollment of nearly 5,000 students. Of the nearly 5,000 students, approximately 60% are undergraduates and the remaining 40% are graduates. Historically, race and gender faculty representation in the College of Education at the Southern Research I university has not been reflective of the population in society. During an 87-year period (from 1901 to 1988), six Black faculty and six faculty that were Asian-American, Latino, and/or Native-American had been employed in the college (Jerrolds, 1989). During that same time period, the number of male faculty far out numbered female faculty. Currently the College of Education has approximately 216 faculty members where over 81% of faculty is White, 10% is Black including Africans, and the remaining 9% is Asian-American, Latino, and/or Native-American. Included among the 216 faculty members are tenure-track faculty and academic professionals who are non-tenure track faculty. The majority of faculty is tenure-track. Of the tenure-track faculty, a majority is male; however, based on the last year that faculty names were listed in the annual report (College of Education, 2000) the number of female faculty had increased over the previous year (College of Education, 2001). …