Stylus Publishing (VA) Top 10 Flashpoints in Student Ratings and the Evaluation of Teaching: What Faculty and Administrators Must Know to Protect Themselves in Employment Decisions

ATTENTION: ALL FACULTY & ADMINISTRATORS<br><br>“Another book on student ratings? Are you kidding me?” “Nope, but this one is REALLY different.” <br><br>Another review of the research or step-by-step on how to develop and interpret rating scales? NOT! (Berk did that with <em>Thirteen Strategies</em>) <br><br>Designed to solve YOUR problems, conflicts, and confusion about how to evaluate teaching. Written expressly for YOU with Berk’s signature sense of humor. <br><br><em>FLASHPOINT: a critical stage in a process, trouble spot, contentious issue, volatile hot button, or lowest temperature at which a flammable liquid will give off enough vapour to ignite. </em><br><br>The “flashpoints” covered are the topics that pop up the most frequently and heatedly on listservs, blogs, and the literature. <br><br>Each flashpoint is defined succinctly, options are presented, and then evidence-based recommendations for concrete action steps are proffered in an effort to stop the popping. The recommendations are grounded in psychometric, professional, and legal standards. The last-named, in particular, can protect you from costly litigation. <br><br>If you hire, promote, demote, and fire full- and part-time faculty based on student ratings and other measures, then you are vulnerable to violations of federal anti-discrimination laws. Several flashpoints address procedures you can take to stay out of court. <br><br>If you are a faculty member, you need to know whether your institution’s measures of teaching are appropriate and defensible, and what you should do if they are not. <br><br>Four sample “flashpoints” and solutions:<ul><li> Use of global items for summative decisions. SOLUTION: “Cease & desist” and use scale and subscale ratings</li><li> Low response rate in online administrations. SOLUTION: 20 strategies to increase rates</li><li> Scales to evaluate online and blended/hybrid courses. SOLUTION: 7 strategies are suggested and evaluated </li><li> Use of ratings for contract renewal, pay raise, teaching awards, and promotion and tenure. SOLUTION: Applying 80/20 rule for adverse impact to avoid lawsuits related to unequal pay, gender, race, ethnicity, and age discrimination</li></ul> About the Author <strong>Ronald A. Berk</strong> is Professor Emeritus of Biostatistics and Measurement and former Assistant Dean for Teaching, The Johns Hopkins University, USA.