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SGA to review changes in faculty evaluations

By Robert Fisher
rfishe18@mscd.edu

Many Metro students are not aware of the purpose behind the teacher evaluations they are asked to complete at the end of each semester, and Metro’s Student Government Assembly is trying to change that.

The SGA drafted and passed a resolution Oct. 10 voicing its support to make changes to Metro’s current teacher evaluation system. The evaluation system not only influences pay raises for faculty, but the information gathered from the evaluations is also available online, allowing students to review a teacher’s prior performance before signing up for a class.

Tat Sang So, an assistant professor of English at Metro, is a member of the task force appointed by the administration to research ways the current system could be improved. The task force found problems in the way the evaluations are presented, promoted and interpreted.

“I think (the evaluation) data is unreliable because of the way the data is being collected,” So said. “It is very uneven from class to class.”

The SGA resolution supports the task force’s findings that evaluations could be improved if more students were aware of their influence.

“Outside research shows that students will take the evaluations seriously if they know their opinions will be taken seriously,” So said, adding that a publicity campaign mounted a week before evaluation forms are distributed would be beneficial in educating students.

Metro student Amy Keiffer said she wasn’t educated on the evaluation’s purpose.

“I didn’t know that they could affect teachers’ pay,” she said, adding that she also wasn’t aware the results could be viewed online.

So also suggested in his presentation to the SGA that the name of the evaluations be changed from “Student Evaluations” to “Student Ratings,” saying many students don’t feel that they are capable of “evaluating” their teacher.

“In today’s society, we rate things all of the time,” So said. “I think this idea of ‘evaluation’ is inappropriate for what we’re doing.”

The resolution also seeks to improve the program by holding evaluations at the beginning of the class period rather than at the end, and having someone who’s educated on the program conduct the evaluation, instead of the student volunteers who conduct them.

The first step in making the changes effective are getting them approved by the Metro Faculty Senate. Kevin Harris, who sits on the board of trustees as student trustee, said So requested the SGA review the proposals to make sure the students were behind the changes.

“He absolutely didn’t want to go ahead without student support, and we (the SGA) were more than happy to give it to him,” Harris said.

So said that these were “quick” changes that could be implemented if they are passed by the faculty senate, but that there were other alterations that could be made to the program that would be more long term, such as redesigning the forms to make questions more clear and making the information more accessible to students.

As it stands, many find the evaluation information presented online unclear.

“I’ve looked at the teacher evaluations online, and they didn’t make any sense,” said SGA Senator Kailei Higginson, referring to the number scale used to represent the evaluation results.

The task force is planning to propose major changes in the future and continually improve how students perform the evaluations and access the information gathered from them.