Shepherd University
Faculty Research Forum

“Designing and Implementing Structured Course Evaluations and Self Evaluations.”

In an age of national standards that have come to drive, however precariously, our nation’s public schools, accountability is increasingly placed on schools for the quality of student academic progress.  A growing consensus of educators is now emerging who indict the strategies by which these educational goals have been addressed.    The national debate also affects institutions of higher education, particularly schools, colleges, and departments of education and SCDE’s are studying their own accountability mechanisms and structures with heightened scrutiny.  In spite of these movements, however, a fundamental disconnect remains between the essential process by which individuals improve in their craft, and the mechanisms used to measure teacher quality professionally.  A new scholarship of integration is thus warranted that addresses this fundamental teaching and learning disconnection.  Structured self assessment mechanisms can be designed and implemented in ways that provide a more concrete, complete and valid basis for evaluation and that provide a tangible strategic skeleton for addressing the goal of reflection as the linchpin of professional growth.