BIAS AND THE INTENDED USE OF STUDENT EVALUATIONS OF UNIVERSITY FACULTY

This study examines whether the intended use of data obtained from student evaluations of university faculty biases the ratings. The paper reviews and critiques previous research done in the area. Previous studies produced contradictory results, but the results were confounded by several methodological problems. The research reported here remedied some of the problems in previous studies. The findings indicated that, while students are aware of the intended use of ratings as stipulated in written directions, different uses do not result in statistically significant differences in the ratings. Implications for the use of student ratings in the evaluation of faculty are discussed.