Carnegie Report Recommends Evaluation of Professors
Citing a "need to expand the definition of legitimate faculty work in ways that put research in proper perspective without doing it harm," a new report by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recommends setting specific standards for documenting and evaluating the work of college and university professors. The report, Scholarship Assessed: Evaluation of the Professoriate, describes six qualitative standards that provide a framework for evaluating professors: clear goals; adequate preparation; appropriate methods; significant results; effective presentation; and reflective critique.

The report's authors say the new standards can be used to measure scholarly effectiveness in all types of discipline and across four categories of scholarship identified in a previous Carnegie study. That report, released in 1990 and called Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate, moved beyond the "research versus teaching debate" and recognized four categories of scholarship: discovery (research); teaching; application (service); and integrating knowledge. The goal of the new Carnegie study is to provide language and methodology for effectively evaluating these dimensions of scholarly work.

"Without a better balance among professional priorities," the new report warns, "gaps will widen between fields of knowledge, between faculty and students, between campuses and the larger society...." (Source: The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, 8/25/97)

More Students Choosing College Education
Colleges and universities can expect a 21 percent increase in full-time enrollment during the next decade, according to the U.S. Department of Education. A report prepared by the department's National Center for Education Statistics shows a record 65 percent of all high school students chose to attend college this year, and projects further increases. The report says the total number of high school graduates will increase by 18 percent over the next decade nationwide. Western states will see sharper increases than the rest of the nation.

Reprinted, with permission from CASE Flash Points.