Longer teacher evaluations tried

To more accurately reflect student opinion, longer faculty evaluations will be tested in classrooms next semester after an approving vote Thursday from the Academic Senate.

The Senate voted, with little opposition, to test the new form, developed by the IDEA Center at Kansas State University next fall in 100 classes as an experiment. The Senate's exact vote was not recorded because there was little opposition.

The Senate retreated from implementing the new form in all classes because of extensive faculty concern over the form's length, cost and applicability in art studio, lab and field classes.

"We want to really try to run a serious test here," said Wayne Dick, chairman of the Faculty Personnel Policies Council, which has been seeking an appropriate replacement to the current form for the past two years.

In the pilot test, people will be trained to evaluate the new form and gather reaction from students and faculty.

Dick said he thinks the current form, which consists of eight multiple-choice questions and a section for student comments, was not an accurate reflection of student opinions.

"We're not sure it's eliciting the information it's supposed to," said Dick, professor of computer engineering and computer science.

Students on campus appeared reluctant to take on the new form, which consists of 47 questions. The form not only evaluates the instructor but also assesses the student's "progress" in the course and his or her "attitude and behavior."

"It doesn't make sense to have something so long," said Jon Athan, a junior Spanish major. "What we have now answers all the questions. If people have anything more to say, they say it in the comments."

Student Kim Kunze agreed.

"I wouldn't want to have to fill it out in every class, right before finals when we have other stuff going on," said Kunze, a senior liberal studies major.

Faculty members are concerned because the student evaluations are used, along with other course materials, in evaluating a teacher's performance for merit-pay raises, promotion and tenure.

"We take it extremely seriously," Dick said. "The form is used to evaluate faculty teaching, so we'd like to see student opinions gathered correctly."

With so much at stake, some teachers worry about evaluations because many departments "inappropriately" use them, Dick said.

"One of the reasons professors get scared is that they're concerned about an over-reliance on the form to evaluate them," he said.

The issue led to much debate in the Senate, where a vote on the IDEA form was repeatedly postponed to allow for more faculty discussion.

Dick was bombarded by emails from faculty who expressed concerns over aspects of the new form.

"There were a lot of good concerns about this form," Dick said.

The faculty policy council will estimate the cost to implement the new form on a limited basis next fall. Dick estimated it would cost $56,000 to use the form campuswide. The current form costs $18,000 to administer, he said.

The council will also have to come up with a new form that lab, field and art studio classes will be able to use.