Teaching is evaluated at the University of Oregon for a variety of reasons, including for promotion and tenure, contract renewal, and assignment of merit raises. Because these applications are so important to the faculty members and the university, evaluation instruments and processes must be as equitable and transparent as possible.
Members of the UO community will be familiar with recent research on bias inflecting teaching evaluation, particularly the student evaluation of teaching. TEP summarizes this research and underscores the importance of drawing on multiple data sources to inform evaluation in its Statement on the Student Evaluation of Teaching.
To mitigate bias and ensure evaluation supports the development of UO’s teaching culture, the University of Oregon, led by the University Senate and Provost’s office, is launching a new Continuous Improvement and Evaluation of Teaching System.
The system:
- Uses the central resources of the university to ensure evaluators have richer evidence of teaching quality and instructors have richer evidence to inform teaching improvement;
- Captures and honors the process of teaching improvement.
- Beginning in Fall 2020, evaluates faculty using a clear definition of teaching quality that can include units’ expectations. (See baseline standards as they’re articulated in an August 2019 Memorandum of Understanding between the University and United Academics).
- Relies on data collected from students, peers, and instructors themselves.
A regularly updated page detailing the development and implementation system is available on the Office of the Provost’s webpage.