This means that many faculty have still not had their fears of the process allayed. Ratings will be lower in some courses because of the nature of the courses themselves. Specifically, ratings are lower in lower level courses which are often required, and ratings are lower in courses with large sections. Some faculty would argue that they should only be evaluated by colleagues with excellent publication records. Too many courses are taught by graduate assistants or temporary instructors who don't know how to teach.
Faculty are too concerned with research to the detriment of their teaching effectiveness.
Research on all of these questions is mixed. In the same review, they cited eight studies that found no relationship between student ratings and course level, but eighteen that found higher ratings for graduate and upper division courses. Their correlations ranged from -.3 to .15 if the instructor was the first author, and from .00 to .33 if the instructor was the second author. Their correlations ranged from .00 to .16. This study attempted to determine the relationship between student ratings and the variables of class size, course level, faculty rank, faculty productivity, and intended use of the ratings.