A historic change is taking place in higher education. Professors are being held responsible as never before for how well they serve students. It has become as common in colleges and universities for students to grade professors as for professors to grade students. In fact student ratings (评价) have become the most widely used and in many cases the only important information on teaching effectiveness. In comparing three studies of the same 600 middle and high schools in more than thirty states it was found that the number of schools using student ratings to evaluate (评估) teachers had climbed from 29 percent to 68 percent to 86 percent. No other method of evaluation got that degree of usage and other studies have found similar results.
One reason that student evaluations of teachers have become so popular is that they are easy to carry out and to score. But they are also easy to abuse. If they are expected to throw meaningful light on teachers’' performance the ratings must be used in a way that shows at least some of what we’'ve learnt about them from research and from experience.
Research and experience have shown us, for example, that student ratings should never be the only basis for evaluating teaching effectiveness. There is much more to teaching than what is evaluated on student rating forms. When ratings are used, we know that students should not be expected to judge whether the materials used in a course are up to date or how well the teacher knows the subject matter of the course.
These judgments require professional background and are best left to the professor’'s colleagues. On the other hand, students should be asked to estimate what they have learned in a course, and to report on such things as a professor’'s ability to communicate at the student’'s level, professional behavior in the classroom, relationship with students, and ability to arouse interest in the subject.
1. The central idea of the passage is that______.
2. Which statement is TRUE?
3. In student ratings are the following questions can be asked EXCEPT: ______.
4. The sentence in the thirdsecond paragraph “But they also are also easy to abuse” means______.
