A Use of Index Numbers

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E VERY administrator is familiar with the fact that it is impossible to obtain measures of the teaching-load which are completely satisfactory. Since the duties of faculty members are diverse and the activities in which they engage have such different relationships to the university, it is impossible to classify all the different elements and to measure them quantitatively. There are certain aspects of the teachingload, however, which are definitely and subject to statistical treatment. The number of courses an instructor teaches, the number of hours he spends in the classroom, the number of students enrolled in his classes, and other like items, are, if certain comparable standards are set up, definitely measurable. These different measures are not, however, necessarily consistent, nor even highly correlated; nor is a measure in one department always comparable to a corresponding measure in another department. Devices are needed by which the different measures may be combined into a composite measure, and by which relative or comparable values may be obtained. It is here suggested that index numbers may be used to accomplish these ends. In the present discussion we limit ourselves to the case of the measurable teaching-load, that is, to those aspects of the teaching-load which are definitely measurable. A corresponding approach could be applied, with somewhat less reliability, to those aspects of the teaching-load which may be estimated, if not measured; for example, such items as estimates of the amount of time spent in research, administration, and the like. Various ways of appraising the teaching-load have been in use. Probably the earliest and simplest was the number of courses taught. This measure was obviously inadequate in that the number of teaching hours varied with the different courses and so was soon supplanted by the semester-hour unit. An instructor's load in semester-hours is simply the number of hours per week the instructor devotes to lecture, recitation, or laboratory. As VicePresident Yoakum has pointed out, the semester-hour was introduced naturally, as it is a measure which corresponds to that with which the student load is measured.'