Faculty Rating Scale Validity: The Selling of a Myth

Abstract

WHEN NORMIAN EAGLE ANSWERED (Comm7unity and Junior College Journal, October 1975) Irene Kiernan's article questioning the validity of student ratings of faculty (Community and Junior College Journal, April 1975), he used a technique one finds often in articles about evaluation. Those who question the validity of student ratings on logical or philosophical grounds are accused of being ignorant of or of willfully ignoring the findings of scientific research. It is curious, Mr. Eagle says, that Professor Kiernan argues so strongly for the validation of student rating questionnaires while ignoring the wealth of research findings (in effect, validity studies), which now abound. the April, 1974, Community and Junior College Journal, Charlotte Epstein took the same approach. She asked, How do the perceptions of faculty compare with the findings of scholarly research on the validity of student evaluations? She answered, In most cases faculty attitudes do not agree. Research findings, for example, do not support the faculty view student ratings are affected by grades, class size, or whether or not the student is majoring in the discipline. Perhaps the classic example of the research-is-on-our-side technique appears in Kenneth Eble's article, What Are We Afraid Of? in the January, 1974, issue of College English. Professor Eble is the former director of the AAUP-American Association of Colleges sponsored Project to Improve College Teaching and author of its influential report, The Recognition and Evaluation of Teaching. He has also been a professional consultant on faculty evaluation for some years. his College English article he said exactly what he thought of an article by Evelyn Kossoff had appeared in the WVinter, 1971-72, issue of the American Scholar. Ms. Kossoff, an English teacher, had questioned the logic of faculty rating scales rate a teacher as average when a third of his students say he is average, a third say he is below average, and a third say he is above average. Ms. Kossoff had attempted to defend her position with logical arguments and case histories rather than with citations of statistical research studies in educational journals. Professor Eble was quick to point out the absence of scholarly citations. Her