Student evaluations measure teaching quality
| Student evaluations measure teaching quality | |
|---|---|
| UNSUPPORTED | |
| "Student evaluations of teaching are a valid measure of how well instructors teach and of how much students learn, and can be used to make hiring, promotion and tenure decisions." | |
| Domain | Education & Learning |
| Tactic | Statistical & Evidentiary Distortion |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 1970s |
| Origin | The widespread adoption of standardized student rating forms in colleges and universities from the 1970s onward, used in personnel decisions |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-27 |
| Further reading: books on Education & Learning | |
The claim that student evaluations measure teaching quality underpins how many colleges and universities assess faculty. End-of-course rating forms are used to decide on hiring, contract renewal, promotion and tenure. A growing body of research has found that student ratings are weakly related or unrelated to how much students learn, and that they are affected by factors unrelated to teaching, including instructor gender, perceived attractiveness, course difficulty and expected grades. Student evaluations can provide useful information about students' experiences, but the evidence does not support using them as a measure of teaching effectiveness.
The claim
Universities often report average scores on items such as "Overall, this instructor was effective" and compare them across faculty. Administrators treat higher averages as evidence of better teaching.
What the evidence shows
- Meta-analysis. In 2017 Bob Uttl, Carmela White and Daniela Wong Gonzalez published a re-analysis of multisection studies in Studies in Educational Evaluation. Earlier meta-analyses had reported moderate correlations between ratings and learning, but after correcting for small-sample bias, the authors found that student ratings and student learning were not related.
- Gender bias. A 2015 study by Lillian MacNell, Adam Driscoll and Andrea Hunt in Innovative Higher Education found that students in an online course rated an instructor more highly when they believed the instructor was male, regardless of the instructor's actual gender. A 2016 analysis by Anne Boring, Kellie Ottoboni and Philip Stark of data from France and the United States found that ratings were biased against female instructors and were not a reliable measure of learning.
- Grades and difficulty. Research has found that students tend to rate courses more highly when they expect higher grades, which may create incentives for grade inflation.
- Legal ruling. In 2018 an arbitrator, William Kaplan, ruled in a dispute between Ryerson University in Toronto and its faculty association that student evaluations could not be used to measure teaching effectiveness for promotion or tenure.
Why it persists
Student evaluations are inexpensive, easy to collect and produce numbers that can be compared. They also reflect a reasonable value: students' views of their experience matter. Better methods, such as peer observation and review of teaching materials, take more time and effort.
Lessons for readers
- A number that is easy to collect is not necessarily a valid measure.
- Satisfaction and learning are different things.
- Ask whether a measure is affected by bias unrelated to what it claims to measure.
- Small-sample studies can inflate apparent correlations.
- Use multiple sources of evidence for high-stakes decisions.
See also
- Columbia University was ranked second in the nation
- Homework improves learning for young children
- Atlanta schools' test score gains were real
Sources
- Bob Uttl, Carmela A. White and Daniela Wong Gonzalez, "Meta-analysis of faculty's teaching effectiveness: Student evaluation of teaching ratings and student learning are not related," Studies in Educational Evaluation 54 (2017).
- Lillian MacNell, Adam Driscoll and Andrea N. Hunt, "What's in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching," Innovative Higher Education 40 (2015).
- Anne Boring, Kellie Ottoboni and Philip B. Stark, "Student evaluations of teaching (mostly) do not measure teaching effectiveness," ScienceOpen Research (2016).
- Ryerson University v. Ryerson Faculty Association, arbitration award by William Kaplan, June 28, 2018.