Plan for Online Student Evaluations Mandated

The Coordinating Board is requesting input on proposed rules to implement a new law requiring online publication of course information by institutions of higher education. The proposed rules are open for public comment for the next 30 days. Contact information is provided below.

Here is the official bill summary of the new law, HB 2504.

Under the statute, colleges will be required to post course syllabi, the Curriculum Vitae of faculty members (listing schools attended, publications, and teaching experience, e.g.), cost information, and other pertinent facts about each course. These items are often found online presently, or at least in the official catalogs of each institution. In fact some publication is required by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

However, controversy may result from the following passage in HB 2504: "Institutions of higher education included in this section shall conduct end-of-course student evaluations of faculty and develop a plan to make evaluations available on the institution's website."

As reported earlier, this sentence, one of several Senate floor amendments also approved by the House on Saturday, May 30 (two days before adjournment), was inserted after all hearings on the bill had been held, precluding any realistic opportunity for comment or testimony from educators. The bill passed both chambers unanimously. The author of the law is Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham). The Senate sponsor is Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), who chairs the Senate Committee on Education.

As practitioners are aware, schools now routinely conduct student evaluations of all instructors. In a typical scenario, anonymous evaluations are collected (without faculty participation or potential influence) in each class, then shared with the instructor by supervisors after grades have been distributed. However, HB 2504 will result inevitably in a new level of state uniformity. Its practical effect may also hinge upon how the statute is interpreted via Coordinating Board rules.

Experienced faculty members have learned that, while student evaluations can be extremely useful, the results can vary arbitrarily, depending upon a host of circumstances: time of day, the number of students who registered late for newly opened classes, the educational background of students in a particular section, attendance on a given day, and other factors unrelated to the quality of instruction. Faculty members also report that intellectual rigor, the complexity and difficulty of assignments, and whether essay exams are required can also influence student evaluations. Not surprisingly, it is commonplace to observe that students who receive high grades give better evaluations of faculty. Today, students who wish to pursue the path of least resistance often chat among themselves about prospective teachers prior to registration, but HB 2504 will give them a more efficient tool.

TCCTA, with the help of association lobbyist Beaman Floyd, has begun to share the perspective of community and technical college educators with policy makers, paying careful attention to (1) the potential effect of using student evaluations to inform educational choices by students and parents, (2) whether intellectual rigor could be placed in jeopardy by publishing such evaluations, and (3) concerns about the privacy of students and teachers.

The proposed rules will be considered by the Academic Excellence and Research committee on September 22 and by the full Coordinating Board on October 29. Members are invited to send comments on these proposed rules to MacGregor Stephenson at macgregor.stephenson@thecb.state.tx.us and to Kevin Lemoine at kevin.lemoine@thecb.state.tx.us. [IMPORTANT: In communicating with Coordinating Board officials, participants are urged to be constructive and to keep in mind that written comments will become part of the public record.]

In addition, members wishing to offer suggestions about the issues discussed above may do so by responding to this post. TCCTA will use this information to formulate the association's strategy on these important matters.

Comments

[Stephen S.]

Is there any way to, at the very least, require a click-through or pop-up that explains the limits to the use of these numbers and comments before a user can access them?

An explanation of the factors and uses of student evaluations would at least give the option of placing these within a context and not turn them into another "Rate My Professor"-style forum that privileges "Hotness" or lack of rigor.

While the user could ignore this information, faculty would at least have the knowledge that those posting these comments recognized that their accuracy as a metric of actual instruction contains serious flaws and limits, especially for student populations unused to developing thoughtful critique of pedagogical methods.