Over the years student have been asked to take the State University System Student Assessment of Instructors.
This assessment allows students to evaluate their teachers with eight questions grading them on a scale of excellent to poor.
The test are then sent to the testing center at Sunshine Manor, and the scores are calculated to determine the teacher’s average score among the students.
This assessment is done throughout many colleges and universities.
Some are more detailed than others, but it is the same basic assessment within each school.
Seward Hamilton is a professor at Florida A&M University, a clinical psychologist, and a test result adviser. He explained that once teachers are graded, a copy of the results is given to the professors and the deans of the school, who then reviews the score with the assessed professor. The results are sent to the library for public information.
“The surveys are limited and too general,” Hamilton said. “They need to have a more in depth evaluation as they did over ten years prior and they should also rate the students and not just the teachers.”
As a teacher, Hamilton said he looks at his evaluation and looks for things that he can improve on, not whether or not students liked him personally.
“I feel as though the surveys are a necessity to the educational process,” said Darnell Treadwell, a fifth year professional MBA student from Washington, D.C. “Each professor has an obligation to the student, the university, and themselves to be steadfast to their values and the integrity of the system.”
Treadwell said he doesn’t believe that his teachers care about what students say about them, and don’t plan on changing.
Shannon Liddell a second year pharmacy student said she does not feel the surveys are not accurate.
“I feel the surveys don’t measure the teachers and their teaching ability,” said Liddell, a Chicago native. “A lot of people give their personal opinions and not actually measure the teachers in a true and reasonable form. Some students just bubble to get it done with. I feel there is another way to do the surveys more accurately.”