This week, students will open their CUE Guides and consider the respective merits of Science A-35: "Matter in the Universe" and Historical Studies A-12: "International Conflicts in the Modern World."
Administrators will also be looking at the ratings--but for an entirely different reason.
Although the publishers of the CUE guide say it is intended as a reference for students, many of the University's academic departments also rely on the CUE ratings.
Officials say the CUE numbers are often used to help Harvard decide which teaching fellows to hire and which junior faculty to promote.
While the CUE guide introduction does explain that forms are photocopied and distributed to instructors after grading for the benefit of "faculty members interested in student feedback," it makes no mention of the use of forms to evaluate faculty themselves or their teaching fellows.
"The aim of the CUE Guide is to provide undergraduates with reliable information to be used during the process of choosing courses," reads one of the opening pages of this year's book, published by the Committee for Undergraduate Education.
But like the ratings inside, the committee's claims may not necessarily be accurate, some say.
"It's clear that CUE scores are used for some evaluation of both teaching fellows and of junior faculty," says Lawrence Buell, Dean of Undergraduate Education.
"Different departments use different procedures for evaluating their graduate students," Buell adds. "It's fair to say that all departments look at the CUE results with interest."
"All course heads [look at the CUE Guide results] but how far that extends--using the CUE results as a formal procedure for evaluation--just varies a lot," Buell says.
CUE ratings are used in considering the promotion of junior faculty from assistant to associate professor and in tenure considerations.
"A number of departments collect and send CUE scores for junior faculty when they're being considered for tenure," Buell says. "That's part of the evidence of teaching performance."
While Buell admits that CUE ratings are used to evaluate teaching fellows and junior faculty he says the University has not established a formal procedure for the use of CUE scores.
"Our office does not dictate how that is done," Buell says. "That's done at the departmental level."
`A Factor in Promotion Decisions'
Interviews with a number of department heads reveal that different departments' use of CUE ratings depend on how accurate the numbers are assumed to be.
"I think that the CUE Guide is useful but it is not very precise and The astronomy department only distributes CUEforms in classes big enough to be included in theguide. To supplement that evaluation procedure,Kirshner says his department also has constructedits own internal evaluation system so that everystudent has a chance to offer feedback. The forms are used to "help people improvetheir teaching," Kirshner says. "But it is one waythat the department members form an impression ofthe teaching strengths of junior faculty." These CUE ratings and performance evaluationsare used in hiring, Kirshner says. "We don't use the CUE Guide in a simple way,but it is a factor in promotion decisions," headds. "It's a large part of our evaluations ofteaching," Kirshner says. "It's a medium part ofour evaluations of somebody's performanceoverall." Despite the widespread use of CUE ratings andinternal forms as a way to evaluate teachers,Kirshner says the accuracy of the feedback "variesa lot." "Sometimes the students don't take theevaluations seriously themselves," he says. "Ifyou read the CUE Guide forms as submittedsometimes, students use that as an opportunity formaking rude comments." Although most professors agree that ratings maynot accurately reflect teaching skills, scoringwell in the CUE has its own rewards. "We always have a round of applause for theperson with the highest ranking in ourdepartment," Kirshner says. "Last year, that wasRamesh Narayan. Let me add, try to get in hiscourse," he jokes. Professor of Astronomy Narayan received aperfect 5.0 rating for his teaching in Astronomy145, an advanced astrophysics class. "I think we normally take the CUE Guideevaluation as an indication of the quality ofteaching, but I do not have any clear idea of howaccurate it is," Narayan says. "I think it is fair to use it in hiringteaching fellows," he adds. "It's probably fair touse it as one criterion in promoting juniorfaculty, but I don't think it should be the mostimportant criteria." He cites classroom performance, research andinteraction with students on a one-to-one basis asother important criteria for promotion. Professor of Geophysics Richard J. O'Connell,who serves on faculty promotion committees forEarth and Planetary Sciences (EPS), says CUEratings also play an important role in departmentevaluations. "We look at the CUE Guide evaluations and[graduate] students with good evaluations are verysought-after as teaching fellows," O'Connell says."If a student has a bad evaluation, then we advisethem to get help from the [Derek C.] Bok Center[for Teaching and Learning]." "If a student or a teaching fellow had a badrating, we would recommend he improve his teachingability before he was hired," O'Connell says. The ratings are also used in considering thepromotions of junior faculty. Although the University does not mandatedepartmental use of CUE forms, EPS accepts solidratings as a factor in promotion and tenuredecisions, O'Connell says. "In our internal deliberations within thedepartment, we certainly take them into account,"O'Connell says. "In fact, these are forwarded tothe University administration as part of thedocumentation of the department's recommendationfor promotion." History of Science is another department thatemphasizes CUE ratings. "We use the reports on teaching that come fromthe CUE process for promotions of faculty and,where it comes up, we use the CUE Guide as oneindication for reports on teaching," says EverettI. Mendelsohn, professor of the history of scienceand the acting chair of the department. With regard to teaching fellows, "we certainlydo read the CUE Guide reports when they come tous, and on the basis of those, we directly consultwith the TF...and we review with those havingdifficulties questions about their teaching andsee if they can get some help," Mendelsohn says. In Social Analysis 10: "Introduction toEconomics," a class known for itsstrictly-screened and well-respected TFs, CUEratings are considered a valid barometer of ateacher's effectiveness. "I would say we take them very seriously, butthey are not the only indicator of how well ateacher is doing," says Brian J. Hall, assistantprofessor of economics and the head teachingfellow for Ec 10. Hall says CUE ratings are combined with aninternal evaluation, a videotaped performance andself-evaluations to give section leaders feedbackon their teaching and in making hiring decisions. "The main goal of using these tools is toimprove the teachers that we have and to try tohelp them become better...so we look for a totalpicture and this is one important element," Hallsays. "We take teaching very seriously, bothhiring and improving." `What's a four?' While junior faculty and teaching fellowsgenerally say ratings are fair, they are quick topoint out limitations of student evaluations thatonly offer students a numerical range of one tofive. They say the evaluations should not be usedexclusively in hiring and promotion decisions. "You want some sense of teaching ability in anyreview of a professor's ability," says AssociateProfessor of Economics John V. Leahy. The CUEGuide, he says, offers only a vague and oftenarbitrary standard by which students can judgetheir teachers. "What's a four? Maybe it means one thing to onestudent but something different to another," hesaid. Carl B. Agee, an associate professor in theEarth and Planetary Sciences department, says hebelieves that while the CUE Guide has some flaws,it does contain important data. "It gives a fair measure of certain aspects ofteaching, but it doesn't cover everything," hesaid. "There is one form for all different sortsof courses. The ratings are totalled up, [but]they don't relate to the quality of the course." Some junior faculty like Associate Professor ofHistory Vladimir N. Brovkin had not even realizedthat CUE evaluations were used in tenuredecisions. Brovkin says he is concerned that the expressedintention of the CUE evaluations--to offerstudents guidance in choosing courses--might beincompatible with the added function of using themas hiring devices. "I'm not criticizing the CUE guide," he says."The CUE guide is geared to students, and that's alittle different than the evaluation." Instructor Discretion Some professors believe that the CUE forms arenot an accurate way to evaluate teaching fellowsand junior faculty. Marjorie Garber, who teaches Literature andArts A-40: "Shakespeare: The Early Plays," did notintend to give out the CUE forms in her class.Some of Garber's teaching fellows had receivedpoor CUE evaluations in earlier years. According to Buell, "The impression I got from[Garber] was that her first reason was the issueof taking class time to do this." "I know too that she had not been happy withsome of the comments that her TF's had received inthe past, but that's not a unique kind of reactionamong people who always participate in the CUEsystem," Buell says. "Course heads know partly because of thecomments they get on their own teaching that someevaluations will be unnecessarily harsh andcruel," he says, "and my sense is that they try tobuffer that with their teaching fellows,conveying--if there is any bad news to beconveyed--conveying it with some exp anation likethat." Buell says that several of Garber's teachingfellows eventually distributed the CUE evaluationsin review sections. Garber was out of town and could not be reachedfor comment. A Solution? The solution, some teaching fellows and juniorfaculty members say, is to use student evaluationsin addition to faculty observation and othermethods of feedback. Neal Rosendorf, who has been a teaching fellowin several history courses, says the historydepartment uses the CUE ratings as "one measureamong many." He says the history department's system is fairbecause the professor's evaluation of the graduatestudent counts for more than the CUE ratings inhiring decisions. "But that's not to say the CUE has no value,"Rosendorf says. "[My] CUE evaluation did offer afairly accurate assessment of my teaching, bothstrengths and weaknesses." James D. Wilkinson, the director of the BokCenter, says he believes "on average, thestudents' comments [on CUE evaluations] are fair." "I think that written students comments on theCUE forms are an extremely valuable resource, andI think they could be more widely used ingeneral," Wilkinson says. But he stresses that the CUE forms cannot bethe only form of evaluation used. "I think that any information about teaching[performance] must come from several sources, andstudent input should only be one of a number ofsources for that judgment," Wilkinson says. "Thatcould include evaluation by the course head,evaluation by a head teaching fellow, andself-evaluation by the teaching fellow." "Just as in grading student performance,"Wilkinson continues, "the more different sourcesof info you have about a teaching fellow'steaching, the more fair the judgment will be." Associate Professor of History Cemal Kafadar,who has consistently garnered high ratings in CUEevaluations, says he believes the system should bechanged slightly if ratings are going to be usedfor hiring or promotion decisions. "Graduate teaching is not always reflected inthe CUE guide. There is also dissertationadvising, which is never evaluated in any formalfashion," he said. "I think departments should askeach and every graduate student to write anevaluation." "At Princeton, where I worked before, they askstudents and faculty to come together and write ajoint evaluation," he said. "I don't know howseriously [the joint evaluation] is taken, butit's done."
Read more in News
Barrett Seeks Interns, Volunteers
