Advocate Online

The Dialogue Question:
Should Student Evaluation of Teaching Count Toward Promotion and Tenure?

Yes, teaching evaluations should count toward promotion and tenure.
John D. Schwetman*

Along with research and service, teaching should be a part of what tenure and promotion committees consider as they evaluate faculty. Student evaluations, though imperfect, are the best available measure of our teaching. As long as faculty have control over the means of evaluation and how it counts toward tenure and promotion, we should welcome consideration of evaluations as part of the overall picture of our accomplishments.

From the perspective of our students and those outside the university community, teaching is more important than research and service. It is the area where our work as faculty is the most visible and coherent to people outside of the profession. Consequently, continued support of America’s colleges and universities depends on our careful attention to what happens in the classroom. There may have been a time when faculty could safely brush off demands for accountability in teaching, but that time has passed.

In addition, the majority of us are very good teachers who will benefit from having our teaching count toward tenure and promotion. If we agree that our ability to teach should count toward tenure and promotion, then we should note that student evaluations, when properly administered, provide a good measure of our abilities in the classroom.

Faculty should not merely tolerate student evaluations, we should take the initiative through contract negotiations or committee representation to develop a fair mechanism for student evaluation, monitor its effectiveness, and adjust accordingly. If we trust our students enough to allow their evaluations to factor into promotion and tenure, they will return that trust.

*John D. Schwetman is an assistant professor in the Department of English at the University of Minnesota Duluth. He is the legislative liaison of the University Education Association, an NEA affiliate, and a graduate of the first NEA Emerging Leader Academy.

No, student evaluations should be tools for growth, not part of the promotion and tenure process.
Stacey Bartlett*

Despite polarizing views on a host of campus-wide issues, both administrators and teachers agree on the importance of assessing student needs. One commonly used method of determining if students are getting what they need from instruction is student evaluations of teachers.

But when students become customers, and customers are seen as always right, who protects the academic standards and pedagogical necessities of teachers?

Prior to my coming to higher education, my career involved customer service management and related areas for more than 15 years, and I currently maintain a customer service consulting business. So it is with delight that I witness the customer-centeredness emerging across campuses in bookstores, libraries, and admissions and records departments. But the seemingly benign marketing rhetoric of customer service should not take the place of pedagogical and academic rigor in the classroom.

Arguably, student evaluations of teachers can be inspiring tools for growth and development. But in today’s marketplace view of education, they do not belong in the tenure and promotion process. A customer service orientation in an academic setting gives a sense of entitlement to many students, who see themselves as paying customers and want more for their money, so teachers find ourselves trying to keep students as happy customers. This can lead to many evils, including grade inflation.

While student evaluations of teachers can make for inspiring tools for growth and development, in this environment they are not always an accurate reflection of the true teaching style of the professor and don’t belong in the tenure and promotion process.

* Stacey Bartlett is a speech communication faculty member at Butte Community College in Oroville, CA, and a member of the coaching staff for the Roadrunner Speech and Debate Team. She is a member of the 2003-04 class of the NEA Emerging Leader Academy.