Re: Advice for Tina and other rookies...
Unfortunately it seems to me from my acquaintances with North Central Evaluations, they are not terribly interested in true student schievement after graduation (which I maintain is the BEST indicator of their college preparation). Instead they are interested in whatever the "HOT" educational spin is going at the time. Currently it's "evaluation and justification" and more importantly how one "proves" this in NCA educational jargon-speak! NCA will do little to actually improve the teaching climate or the student learning environment at colleges and universities. I think increasingly its an organization dedicated to justifying the existence of the organization and its professional staff.
Just my $.25 rant!
James Mackey (who is just wallowing through an NCA "evaluation?"
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Rick Tarara wrote
I'm becoming more convinced that the only way out of the grade inflation
morass is for North Central
and other accrediting agencies to set average
grade guidelines and to penalize schools that fall too far outside the
'normal' range. If student evaluations are not abandoned as an evaluation
tool for faculty positions, then average grade in the class will have to
also be a strong criterion--too high is bad! The argument that 'everyone
did what was expected' just means that expectations were too low! ![;-)]()
(Just finding excuses to keep from grading papers and writing exams.)
Rick
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Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu