Before a method of teacher evaluation can be for mulated, a determination should be made concern ing who should make judgments relative to teaching effectiveness: students, faculty, and/or administrators. There are many who advocate the use of student evalu ations (Cole, 1940; Riley, 1950; Woodring, 1965; Rem mers, 1966). Other investigators contend that student evaluations are of questionable value (Writson, 1965; Phillips, 1964; Weaver, 1960). Many faculty members object to being rated by their students. Some contend that the student is not capable of judging, that he does not know what good teaching is. Others argue that because of his immaturity, the student will let extraneous matters interfere with his objectivity. Ryans (1954) declared that teachers do not like to be judged, do not look with favor upon such proposals to assess their classroom performance and that organiza tions of teachers have gone on record as opposed to per formance ratings in any form (Ryans, 1954, p. 695). The present study was undertaken to gain informa tion relative to these controversial issues, specifically to determine the relationship between the grade a stu dent anticipates making in a course and the student's judgment of his teacher's effectiveness. Do students tend to rate teachers in the direction of the grades which they receive? Several investigators using samples from vari ous populations of student raters have addressed them selves to this issue (Anikeep, 1953; Weaver, 1960; Stewart and Malpass, 1966; Bendig, 1953, Remmers, 1928; Remmers, Martin and Elliot, 1949). The subjects used in this study were 1,447 students at Lee College enrolled during the spring semester, 1967. Lee College, located at Baytown, Texas, is a community junior college with an enrollment of approximately 2,000 students. Not all students participated in the study, for not all faculty members were evaluated by their students at this time. Administrative policy at Lee College pro vides that only a portion of the faculty is to be rated each year. There were 871 ratings by m?le students and 570 by female students. Six of the students failed to indi cate sex. There were 844 ratings completed by first year students, 521 by second year students, 78 by special and postgraduate students. Eight ratings were unmarked rela tive to student classification. The characteristics of the Student sample used in this study were very similar to the characteristics of the entire student body enrolled at Lee College during the spring of 1967. Tables I and II give further information concerning characteristics of the students involved.
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