"American colleges, especially the most selective ones, are confronting the dual problems of rampant grade inflation and declining rigor. At Harvard, as I wrote recently, the percentage of A grades has more than doubled over the past 40 years, but students are doing less work than they used to. Teacher evaluations are a big part of how higher education got to this point. The scores factor into academics' pay, hiring, and chance to get tenure."
"Teacher evaluations were born from a reasonable idea: Professors should get feedback so they can improve their instruction. Academics, particularly at national universities, are hired primarily on the strength of their published research, not their teaching prowess. That means they don't get much direct coaching on how to be a better teacher. In the 1960s and '70s, students and some faculty were enthusiastic about introducing evaluations as a way to democratize the university."
Grades awarded to college students and teacher evaluations are both rising, contributing to grade inflation and declining academic rigor. At selective institutions, the percentage of A grades has more than doubled over decades while students often do less work. Evaluation scores influence faculty pay, hiring, and tenure, creating incentives for instructors to lighten workloads and award higher grades to protect their careers. Evaluations originated to provide feedback and democratize universities in the 1960s and '70s and became ubiquitous by the 2010s. Students commonly judge professors on scales and questions about fairness and entertainment, but students are often poor judges of effective teaching.
Read at The Atlantic
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