Faculty Evaluation System

This document is to provide best practice examples and suggestions for Departmental Faculty Evaluation System (FES) guidelines and rubrics. Which will then be used to help frame discussions regarding Tenure and Promotion as well as Post Tenure Review.

The purpose of the FES annual evaluation is to allow faculty to submit documentation detailing what they completed in the previous calendar year. This provides the information needed for the Chair and Dean to evaluate and award merit (when applicable and available).

This FES document also serves the purpose of informing the (Department Promotion and Tenure Advisory Committee) DPTAC for purposes of evaluation T (Tenure)/TT (Tenure Track) faculty as well as pre-and post-tenure.

For information about Tenure Unit Standards by college, visit https://www.shsu.edu/dept/academic-affairs/tenure-units/index.html

Example Best practices

  • Comprehensible and transparent procedures to be used for evaluation.
  • An objective means to evaluate faculty on a 1 to 5 continuous point scale.
  • A clear tool should be utilized to show variation in faculty performance to distinguish meritorious work (e.g., above and beyond expectations, above average, average, below average, below expectations).
  • Descriptions of the categories of performance (e.g., above and beyond, average) should be present.
  • Clear guidelines on what faculty should submit for evaluation.
  • Chairs should provide detailed written feedback.
  • Departments determine the evaluation categories. For example, a 3 interpreted across the university does not necessarily indicate poor performance, but a 1 should consistently indicate poor performance.
  • Clarifying that if the majority of faculty earn 5’s, this details little distinction among the faculty. Thus, the goal of the evaluation tool is to use evaluation criteria that discriminates based on performance.
  • Provide timely quantitative and qualitative feedback to faculty.
  • Hold one-on-one meetings with faculty to discuss their performance and review their evaluation.

Key Questions to Ask

  • Should faculty complete a self-assessment before Chair evaluations?
  • Should departments within the same college have a calibration meeting after each Chair has completed their ratings for each faculty member? This can help with consistency across the college.
  • Should your department have a FES committee to review submitted materials and make recommendations to the department Chair?
  • Who must complete a FES X? What criteria will the FES X score be based on? Faculty who have an administrative position should have a clear expectation to receive a FES X or not.
  • Determine whether or not each DPTAC members sign a confidentiality agreement.