ERIC Number: EJ803169
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Aug
Pages: 10
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0260-2938
EISSN: N/A
Does the Relationship between Student Ratings of Course Easiness and Course Quality Vary across Schools? The Role of School Academic Rankings
Bowling, Nathan A.
Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, v33 n4 p455-464 Aug 2008
Student ratings of teaching effectiveness are widely used to make judgments of faculty teaching performance. Research, however, has found that such ratings may not be accurate indicators of teaching performance because they are contaminated by course easiness. Using student ratings of 9855 professors employed at 79 different colleges and universities, the author hypothesized and found that the relationship between perceived course easiness and perceived course quality was moderated by school academic rankings. More specifically, easiness ratings were more strongly correlated with quality ratings among low-ranked schools than among high-ranked schools. Furthermore, the easiness-quality relationship was slightly stronger among public schools than among private schools. The article concludes by discussing the practical implications of these findings. (Contains 5 tables.)
Descriptors: Student Evaluation of Teacher Performance, Correlation, Robustness (Statistics), Item Analysis, Educational Quality, Course Evaluation, Course Content, Difficulty Level, Role Perception, Classification, Accreditation (Institutions), Institutional Evaluation, Reputation, Predictor Variables
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A