Soft Research on a Hard Subject: Student Evaluations Reconsidered

Abstract

Professor Soper contends that, ideally, the relationship between student evaluation of teaching and the deviation of the expected grade from the student's “target grade” is the appropriate theoretical function to examine. He sees the relevant question as being: If an instructor raises the mean grade expectation by some amount, what will be the impact on that instructor's student evaluation? Soper warns of the possibility of grade inflation and a decline in academic standards. Data are presented suggesting that the students' perceptions of their teachers' abilities are not connected with what those students learn.