The Relationship Between Student Evaluations of Teaching and Faculty Evaluations

Abstract

The AACSB, AECC, AAHE and other institutions have recently suggested that colleges and universities reassess their commitment to teaching. Reliance on student evaluations (SEs) of faculty teaching has been criticized in the literature because many SEs include items that students cannot properly assess and exclude demographic and contextual questions that are known sources of response bias. This study surveyed administrators of accounting programs from a cross-section of schools and programs to determine whether there is an association between the weight given teaching and the weight assigned to SEs. The results show a statistically significant inverse relationship between the weight given SEs and the emphasis placed on teaching.