University of Washington, Tacoma
Institute of Technology

Faculty Evaluation Policy and Procedures

Adopted May 2, 2008. (See below for explanation of the provenance of this document.)

Version 23 April 2008

Section 24-57A of the UW Handbook speficies that "[t]he teaching effectiveness of each faculty member ... shall be evaluated by colleagues using procedures adopted within the appropriate department, school, or college", every year for instructors and assistant professors, and every three years for associate professors and professors. "A written report of this evaluation shall be maintained and shared with the faculty member." By Appendix A of the UWT Handbook, this document is required to be included in the file of faculty candidates for promotion. This document specifies the procedures to be used in the Institute of Technology at UWT.

Review Committee

In the years in which a faculty member is to receive a peer evaluation of teaching effectiveness, the Director will appoint a two-person review committee of full-time faculty. At least one member of this committee will be tenured and equal or senior in rank to the faculty member being reviewed.

This review committee will evaluate the faculty member's teaching materials as specified below, meeting with the faculty member where appropriate. The review committee will send to the Director a written evaluation.

Classroom visits are not required but faculty are encouraged to take advantage of these on a periodic basis. Such visits could be requested by the faculty member being reviewed of members of one's reviewing committee, of other faculty not on the committee, or of external parties such as CIDR. Such visits are strictly for the benefit of the faculty member, and any written commentary becomes part of the record and part of the review procedure only if it is introduced by the faculty member.

Teaching Materials

Included in the faculty member's annual report will be a section on teaching. This section will include:

1. a list by quarter of each course taught since the previous collegial evaluation of teaching effectiveness that includes the term in which the report is written, with the number of students at end of term indicated;
2. a summary of scores for student evaluations for all listed courses;
3. a reflective statement on the strengths and weaknesses of two different listed courses and plans for improvement;
4. copies or links to syllabi and all course material for the two courses discussed just above;
5. a discussion of additional teaching-related activities, which might include: students mentored and advised for research, internships, and projects; teaching awards; grants relevant to teaching, and any teaching-related workshop or conference attendance.
6. a discussion of the faculty member's teaching-related goals and plans until the next collegial evaluation.

Provenance

This document was part of the Faculty Evaluation Policy and Procedures document that the faculty approved on January 9, 2004. On February 1, 2008, we adopted a new policy for annual reports, merit review, and meetings with the Director. However, we left untouched those parts of that 2004 document dealing with collegial evaluation of teaching. All of those "untouched parts" have been placed into the above document, with the following changes. First, all dates have been removed, since we used to review on a calendar year basis and now we are reviewing on an academic year basis. Second, the teaching material to be reviewed is explicitly stated as being part of (or being referenced by) a section of the annual report (this used to be implicit). And third, this document specifies that the evaluations that are produced must be part of the tenure and promotion file. This latter is mandated by the UW faculty code.