On paper, student teaching evaluations make a lot of sense. Who is better positioned to say whether a professor did a good job than the students who took the course? But dig a little deeper, and there’s good reason to question whether colleges should be relying on teaching evaluations to inform big decisions about an instructor’s promotion, pay, or even continued employment. So what’s wrong with this system? And why do colleges still cling to it, despite research that shows it’s flawed?

Related Reading: 

Sign up for The Chronicle’s Teaching Newsletter (The Chronicle) 

Teaching Evaluations are Broken. Can They Be Fixed? (The Chronicle)

A University Overhauled Its Course Evaluation to Get Better Feedback. Here’s What Changed. (The Chronicle)  

Meta-analysis of faculty’s teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related. (ScienceDirect)

Guest:

Beckie Supiano, senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education

For more on today’s episode, visit chronicle.com/collegematters.