There is the suggestion here that student evaluations may not evaluate what they propose to measure. That is not exactly new information. This university does use them, though, and argues that they can be a source of faculty evaluation. Note that this is a university that is making the argument.

Student evaluations of teaching are not valid and should not be used in personnel decisions. That, simply, is the point of this article.

The American Association of University Professors commissioned a survey that garnered over 9,000 responses. The use of student evaluations alone is not recommended. There are complaints of 'bullying' and also complaints of low response rates. They too recommend numerous data sources that could include (their words) peer review, classroom visits, and teaching portfolios.

Here is another argument in the Chronicle that student ratings should not be used exclusively and that a holistic assessment that includes observation should be used. This is important because it comes from the Chronicle.

Here is an op ed piece in the Chronicle in which they report on the results of a survey they commissioned. The argument is that student evaluations are heavily relied upon to the detriment of students and teachers alike.

Here you can see that observations are available but seem optional at Vanderbilt. Survey style student evaluations appear routine.

The main point of this is that there is a bulleted list of items on which teaching can be judged. See page 102. Examples are whether the instructor asks interesting and challenging questions. These are not items that we used to use.

This book suggests (on page 84) that observing teaching can increase the teaching skill of the observer which constitutes another argument for the benefit to the university of observations.

The main point here is that one form of teacher evaluation is by the use of trained observers. It is not clear who these people are but apparently they are NOT faculty in the same content area BECAUSE faculty within the same subject area tend to focus on content rather than teaching practices.

The main point here is that white men are at the advantage when traditional student evaluations are used. So, the University of Southern California will no longer use them in P&T decisions.

This page advocates for a "thoughtful and holistic approach" that includes "self-assessment," "peer review," and student evaluations. The point is that peer review has a place in the process, includng for P&T.

The key piece of information here is that instructors themselves can collect some of the information. So can colleagues.

The key point on this page is that "the most important consideration in teaching evaluation, both for improvement purposes and for personnel decisions, is the use of multiple methods of teaching evaluation using multiple sources of of data.