The Evaluation of Teaching:

A Policy Statement of the University of Toledo Chapter of
the American Association of University Professors (UT-AAUP)
May,1996

Evaluating teaching in American universities has always been a difficult task. Since the University of Toledo Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (UT-AAUP) believes that constructive evaluation of teaching is important to the mission of the University of Toledo, the UT-AAUP Executive Board has issued the following statement on the evaluation of college teaching.

The publication of the American Association of University Professors, Policy Documents & Reports (also known as "The Redbook"), has long been regarded as the definitive source for national standards of academic practice in higher education throughout the United States. In 1975, the AAUP adopted its "Statement on Teaching & Evaluation." That statement generally informs the position of this Board with respect to the collective bargaining contract at the University of Toledo.

Excellence in teaching is a laudable goal, and no group is more committed to that goal than the UT-AAUP. We likewise urge university administrators to join us in a campus-wide commitment to excellence in the delivery of all professional and academic services. We further urge them to commit themselves to excellence in administering the business affairs of this institution. Such commitment would complement the faculty's goal of excellence in teaching and greatly improve the public relations image of the University of Toledo.

The pursuit of excellence, of course, does not take place in an institutional vacuum. Study after study of large-scale organizations point to the importance of organizational climate in achieving stated goals. Establishing such a climate of support rests squarely on the shoulders of the administration.

Our local chapter reaffirms the position of the AAUP that the faculty should have the primary role in evaluating teaching. We emphatically reject any attempt on the part of administrators to claim an exclusive, or even a primary, role in this regard.

UT-AAUP believes that teaching is best evaluated at the academic department level. Moreover, department chairmen should only administer policies that have been formulated and adopted by departmental faculty members. In large, multi-unit departments, the chair and faculty members should strive to develop meaningful sub-groups for purposes of evaluating teaching of members within those groupings. The UT-AAUP opposes any attempt on the part of the Administration to impose a singular approach or evaluative method on the faculty within a department. Further, the employment of any evaluation method should allow for pluralism in the assessment of teaching excellence.

Teaching is intimately bound up with scholarship and academic freedom. A university must foster an intellectual climate that tolerates high levels of differences, acknowledges individual rights, and accepts individual dissenting opinions. Good teaching, service, and scholarship come in various forms. Evaluations of teaching should reflect that individual variation.

The UT-AAUP believes that the continuous improvement of instruction should be the preeminent goal at the University of Toledo. There are multiple means toward that goal and a wide variety of ways to evaluate progress. The Executive Board opposes any attempt on the part of the Administration to substitute summative evaluations for formative evaluations, or to impose a single method or mechanism for rating teaching. Provision 9.1.2.1 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement identifies some of the techniques of evaluation that may, or may not, be used.

The University Teaching Evaluation Committee (UTEC), established by both the UT-AAUP and the administration, issued its "Report" dated June, 1995. The UT-AAUP salutes its emphasis on the critical importance of formative evaluations of teaching and the strength of the Committee's observation that "traditional evaluation activity has not always produced information that generally improves teaching" [p.5, "Report"]. Following a discussion of the pervasive cynicism that student evaluations engender among both faculty and students, alike, at the University of Toledo, the Committee felt compelled to endorse retaining anonymous evaluations of all instructors at all times by students. While the UT-AAUP has no objections to voluntary participation in experimental evaluations and field testing of instruments, it opposes requirements that summative evaluations be anonymous for purposes of personnel administration.

It is the view of the UT-AAUP that the fears of the UTEC Committee are largely unfounded. For example, there have been UT professors who have explained to their students that they were opposed to anonymous student data gathering, unsigned letters of evaluation, and therefore object to anonymous student evaluations. The UT-AAUP believes that while this approach may not be for everyone, we must provide for it. Fears of undue influence on the part of the instructor and the consequent specter of retaliation are overblown. The UT-AAUP opposes absolute and universal requirements that evaluations of teaching by peers, administrators, and students must be anonymous.

There is little evidence, if any, that increasing the frequency of teaching evaluations leads to improved teaching. The UT-AAUP believes that unless there is an evident pedagogical problem within a sector of the university, evaluation of teaching should be conducted at reasonable, negotiated intervals. Such agreements must be consistent with strategic goals of the faculty; i.e., the provision of superior instruction to the most important people on the campus, our students. Just as evaluation methods should vary, careful attention should be given to frequency of administering evaluations.

Again, the UT-AAUP believes that the pursuit of excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service, can be best facilitated if there is a corresponding pursuit of administrative excellence within the University. A dual commitment of both faculty and administration to a goal of excellence is acquired before evaluations can have lasting, constructive effect upon the University. We owe that commitment to our students; we owe it to the people of Ohio.

--Committee A, Committee on Academic Freedom & Grievances

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