Deep in the Heart of Texas

[n2doc]

By STANLEY FISH
A number of responses to my column about the education I received at Classical High (a public school in Providence, RI) rehearsed a story of late-flowering gratitude after an earlier period of frustration and resentment. “I had a high school (or a college) experience like yours,” the poster typically said, “and I hated it and complained all the time about the homework, the demands and the discipline; but now I am so pleased that I stayed the course and acquired skills that have served me well throughout my entire life.”

Now suppose those who wrote in to me had been asked when they were young if they were satisfied with the instruction they were receiving? Were they getting their money’s worth? Would they recommend the renewal of their teachers’ contracts? I suspect the answers would have been “no,” “no” and “no,” and if their answers had been taken seriously and the curriculum they felt oppressed by had been altered accordingly, they would not have had the rich intellectual lives they now happily report, or acquired some of the skills that have stood them in good stead all these years.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/deep-in-the-heart-of-texas/
snip:
Now an entire state is on the brink of implementing just that bite-sized style of teaching under the rubric of “customer satisfaction.” Texas, currently in a contest with Arizona and South Carolina for the title “most retrograde,” is signing on to a plan of “reform” generated by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank dedicated to private property rights and limited government. Backed by Governor Rick Perry (yes, the one who thinks secession is a viable political option), the plan calls for college and university teachers to contract with their customers — that is, students — and to be rewarded by as much as $10,000 depending on whether they meet the contract’s terms. The idea is to hold “tenured professors more accountable” (“A&M regents push reforms,” The Eagle, June 13, 2010), and what they will be accountable to are not professional standards but the preferences of their students, who, in advance of being instructed, are presumed to be authorities on how best they should be taught.

A corollary proposal is to shift funding to the student-customers by giving them vouchers. “Instead of direct appropriations, every Texas high school graduate would get a set amount of state funds usable at any state university” (William Lutz, Lone Star Report, May 23, 2008). Once this gets going (and Texas A&M is already pushing it), you can expect professors to advertise: “Come to my college, sign up for my class, and I can guarantee you a fun-filled time and you won’t have to break a sweat.” If there ever was a recipe for non-risk-taking, entirely formulaic, dumbed-down teaching, this is it. One respondent to the June 13 story in The Eagle got it exactly right: “In the recent past, A&M announced that it wanted to be a top ten public university. Now it appears to be announcing it wants to be an investment firm, a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and a car dealership.”

[eppur_se_muova]

1. Most colleges already use student evaluations of instructors ...

and those evaluations do play a role in decisions regarding continued employment, tenure, etc.

I've always felt the evaluations were pretty meaningless. Ask people their opinions a few years out of college and it might mean more.

[n2doc]

2. In my experience, at a tier 1 research university

student evals are completely ignored, unless someone wants to use them as an excuse to deny someone tenure or promotion. But in those cases the true reason always lies elsewhere.

Frankly My experience with student evals is, most are worthless and simply reflect if the student had fun in the course. But a few students do take the whole thing seriously and write up good points. It is worth looking for those.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Below Tier 1, I'm afraid they take on more importance ...

some of the schools I've taught at have based tenure more on teaching than research. Evals count more heavily there, alas.

[Hannah Bell]

3. privatized uni's run by corps are next on the agenda for the "little people"