Do proffessors get fired if they continue to receieve bad evaluations?

Question

and if not..whats the point of evaluations each semester?

Answer 1

Now there's a question for the ages ... I like it!

Education does a fairly decent job of getting students to focus on "objectives," for example ... "be sure your response meets the objectives of this assignment," or, in another way, "what were you trying to accomplish with that technique, that writing style, that proposal ...?"  I believe you can see my point.

However, when it comes to evaluations generally and more specifically, professor evaluations, all that hype and bluster about the importance of attending to the "objectives" does not apply.  It truly is a great example of that tired, annoying, and divisive edit, "do as I say, not as I do."

Without going into the particulars, I readily admit to having first-hand knowledge of the "professor evaluation" tango from the perspective of an instructor, administrator, and task-force member.  And, in my view (experiences) professor evaluations are -well, the word that comes to mind is "worthless."

First, there is little -if any at all- agreement within the so-called "academy" regarding the objectives of professor evaluations.  Oh sure, the hype, the wink and nod, and other patronizing postures are there to convince the students as well as the larger community outside the walls of the fiefdom that the school truly cares about the quality of the education it delivers and that professor evaluations are the first defense to ensure "only the good professors remain here to teach."

Please, if you can imagine, many if not most students and even educators themselves would at this point be putting their finger down their throat and pleading, "gag me."

If our schools were truly interested in "coming clean" with this, there would be the public posting of student comments (hmmm, somehow that seems in line with democratic freedoms and values) regarding all professors and, as educated consumers of information, students (at a minimum) and the community in general would see, first-hand, who is doing their job (educating students) and who isn't.

Please know that the above notion is one of the greatest fears of not only professors, but also administrators and Boards of Trustees.

Which then begs the very questions you asked, "do professors get fired if they continue to receive bad evaluations?" Generally, no!  "And, if not, what's the point of evaluations each semester?"  Busy work and self-serving congratulations for another term behind them.

Answer 2

Bad evaluations alone aren't enough, because usually any professor whose class is difficult receives lots of those.  I've also gotten comments on my clothing, my nail polish, and some comments about things were not true (my favorite, from a student who ONLY showed up to class on the day of the evaluations, was, "All she talks about is wanting to get married," something I have never done in my life!  What I did do, on the day he attended, was to give a lecture on decision-making during which I explained why an unweighted model was problematic, by pointing out that something with many good traits and one bad one would be rated more highly than someone with equal numbers of good and bad trait, even if you were choosing someone to marry and that one bad trait was being a serial killer!)However, there are several points to student evaluations.

First of all, they should be a way for the professor to improve.  For example, if a new professor hears repeatedly that she speaks to quickly, or if an older professor hears continuously that he is disorganized, or that he is out of date, it is something that the professor can work on.  The department chair should be helping the individual professor to work with those things.

Secondly, course evaluations are usually used in conjunction with several other factors to evaluate teaching.  If an untenured professor gets bad course evaluations, and also is rated poorly by a peer reviewer, s/he may not get tenure or promotion.  A tenured professor may not get promotion or, if s/he already is a full professor (or actually this is true at any level), s/he may receive limited merit increases, and be harmed monetarily as a result.

Keep in mind that teaching is only one of several things for which a professor is hired.  If the professor is a stellar researcher, the university is likely to put up with many more teaching problems than if the professor is not producing much on the research end.  That is particularly true at schools which place a great value on research.  Some professors are notoriously bad teachers, but are valued by the university for their other assets.  On the other hand, at a school which places a higher premium on teaching, the same person would be less likely to get away with bad teaching.

Answer 3

No.  Plenty of students give bad reviews when they get bad grades.  The evaluations don't serve much point - if all of the students complain about something in particular, the prof might try to fix that, but they aren't used to determine if they get to keep their job or tenure.