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A Faculty Evaluation Manifesto to Counteract Bias

BY SYDNEY FREEMAN, JR., AND DEBORAH THORNE Results from student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are biased; the evidence is irrefutable. Students more harshly assess female instructors and instructors of color. Despite that, in the professional lives of instructors, SETs are extremely consequential—they are used to guide very high stakes personnel decisions such as whether one…

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Suspend Student Evaluations during Pandemic

BY TAMMIE CUMMING, M. DAVID MILLER, FREDRIK DEBOER, AND JENNIFER BERGERON It seems that almost no aspect of academic life has been untouched by the coronavirus pandemic and the drastic measures governments and institutions have taken to respond to it. Nearly every postsecondary institution has adopted distance learning, forcing many faculty and students to adapt…