Section III: Comprehensive Standards (Faculty)

3.7.2.  The institution regularly evaluates the effectiveness of each faculty member in accord with published criteria, regardless of contractual or tenured status.

JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

Compliance.

NARRATIVE/JUSTIFICATION FOR JUDGMENT OF COMPLIANCE

 Northeast Alabama Community College demonstrates compliance through established procedures in faculty evaluation. Goal Four of the college mission is the “Recruitment and retention of qualified personnel who are afforded professional development opportunities and institutional support needed to provide quality postsecondary education.” Regular evaluation of instructors is imperative to the fulfillment of this goal. The procedures for faculty evaluation comply with State Board of Education Policy 607.01 and are published as follows in the Faculty & Staff Handbook:

Faculty Evaluation Procedures

            Faculty evaluation at Northeast is conducted through a three-stage process. First, faculty members individually evaluate their own strengths and weaknesses at the beginning of each academic year. They then set individual goals and objectives for self-improvement for the year. Second, faculty and course evaluation by students is conducted during the fall semester of each year. Third, Division Chairs evaluate faculty during the first two weeks of April each year. Division Chairs are to meet with each faculty member in their division to discuss faculty self-evaluations, student evaluations, and the Division Chair’s evaluation. Each faculty member is to sign upon review of the evaluation, and, if desired, may make a written response. The evaluator must respond in writing to a written response by the person evaluated, to the effect that the evaluation either holds or has been changed in view of stated considerations. The evaluations of instructional personnel will be maintained in the office of the Division Chair or other immediate supervisor.

            For adjunct employees, the three stages of the faculty evaluation procedures may be completed in one semester (in most cases, the first semester in which the instructor is employed during the academic year). The third stage is evaluation by the respective dean, followed by a conference between the instructor and the respective dean.  In other respects, the procedures are the same as for full-time instructors.

These evaluation procedures were implemented prior to 1988 and have been used continuously since that time.

The summary of the Fall 2002 student evaluation of instruction (Table 1) is published in the document Information on Fulfillment of the Mission, May 2003, which was reviewed by the Institutional Management and Planning Committee at the start of its planning activities on May 8, 2003.

Table 1

Instructors of online courses adhere to the same evaluation processes as those of campus-based courses (and most frequently the online instructors are full-time, on-campus personnel), but the questions for the student evaluation of online instruction (Table 2) have been modified to assess the special concerns of distance education (such as access to learning resources, counseling, and special assistance).  Additionally, since distance education is relatively new to NACC, the student evaluation of instruction is conducted every term. Results of the evaluation, as well as analysis of grade distributions and completion rates, are monitored each term by the Curriculum Committee and by the departments offering the distance format.

Table 2

The observations made through this monitoring have led to improvement. For example, the observation of high withdrawal and failure rates among online students led instructors of these courses to design specific measures for retention.  Frequent instructor-student communication and short, frequent assignments were two of the measures implemented. Subsequently, the completion rate for these courses appears to be on the rise (see Table 3). The monitoring will continue.

Table 3