This research addressed itself to the issue of the validity of student ratings of instruction, describing and comparing the factor patterns obtained under three different sets of directions. Graduate education students (n=414) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: administrator use, instructor use, and student use. Subjects in each condition received a different cover letter which explained the purported use to which their ratings were to be put and which asked them to rate their course and instructor on a 33-item rating scale. Data were factor analyzed using principal-axes factor method followed by an oblique transformation. The factor patterns obtained were then compared using the coefficient of congruence. While two clusters (organization/structure and rapport/interaction) emerged across all three conditions, a third cluster appeared which was unique to each condition. The coefficients of congruence obtained generally indicated that the factors could not be considered invariant across the three conditions.