This page identifies common misperceptions that are frequently held about student ratings:

• "Student ratings are all you need to know about teaching."

As noted in Sources of Data for Assessment of Teaching and in Examine Student Ratings in Context, student ratings represent only one perspective on teaching effectiveness, at one point in time.

• "Student ratings don't tell you anything about teaching effectiveness."

As noted in Identify Trends and Patterns, student ratings can help you identify areas for improvement.

• "Students don’t really think about forms while they fill them out."

Students may not always read the same meaning into student ratings items that faculty and administrators do, but evidence suggests that students consider ratings forms more carefully when they have a clear sense of what they are for and how they will be used.

• "To get high ratings, make the class easy."

Although this perception is often reported as one of those things that "everybody knows," research doesn't support it. Classes which students see as difficult are often among the most highly rated, and classes students perceive as easy are not necessarily more likely to receive high ratings. For more information, see Common Predictors of Student Ratings.