Faculty Evaluation

Faculty Evaluation

Austin Community College (ACC) values quality teaching and the importance of a learning environment that helps faculty grow by supporting the continuous improvement of their teaching skills.  

The Office of Faculty Evaluation maintains and implements Austin Community College (ACC) District faculty evaluation timelines and procedures recommended by the Faculty Development and Evaluation shared governance committee. Evaluation is required for faculty counselors, full-time/adjunct faculty, and faculty librarians. The evaluation process is intended to provide feedback to faculty on the effectiveness of their classroom instruction and aid in the development of their professional development plans.

Faculty are evaluated each year.  Faculty who are not in a portfolio year are given an annual evaluation, which covers the entire academic year under review.  Required for annual review: syllabi (see the required components below) and Faculty Reflection Forms (due at the end of each semester), compliance with the college's mandatory training and completion of the minimum number of professional development hours required (adjunct = four; FT = 12). Adherence to deadlines is part of the review.  For portfolio requirements, see the section below.

Beginning Fall 2023, all evaluations will include Peer Reviews.  Full-time faculty members will review only the syllabi and assignments/tests that have been submitted (assignments/tests are part of portfolios only).  The remaining items for annual and portfolio evaluation will be reviewed by the faculty members of the Evaluation Committee.  

All faculty receive a written Evaluation Summary containing comments from 2 - 3 people (peers, evaluation committee and/or the department chair).  Evaluation Summaries are signed by the chair, then the dean, then sent to the instructor, typically in March.  Instructors sign and return the Evaluation Summary form, a copy of which is retained by the administration. Instructors have the right to request a meeting with the department chair to discuss the evaluation received.

     If you have any questions regarding the faculty evaluation process and procedures, please email

      hjuel@austincc.edu

For more information on the faculty evaluation cycle and criteria for both full-time and adjunct faculty, go to Faculty Evaluation. For detailed information on course evaluation, please visit the Course Evaluation page.

        ** For additional information, please refer to Administrative Rule # 4.1201.02

Student Evaluations 

Faculty are evaluated every semester by students. Student evaluations result in a rating of one of the following: Excellent, Very Good, Good, & Needs Improvement.

* Please encourage your students to submit the course evaluations that are accessible via a link in the main menu of your Blackboard courses. 

Portfolios

The contents of the portfolio provide faculty with an opportunity to showcase their work and reflect on what they do and why.  When used correctly, portfolios grant instructors the valuable right to self-expression and the portfolios provide the means by which evaluators “observe” the instructor. 

New hires and instructors with status changes (adjunct to full-time and vice versa) must submit the 1st year portfolio, the following year they submit the 2nd year portfolio, then they join the rest of the faculty in a 3-year cycle: every three years, instructors submit a portfolio.

Full-time and adjunct faculty submit portfolios. Categories for evaluation include instructional performance (syllabi, course evaluations, & Faculty Reflection Forms); administrative performance (compliance with ACC policies such as mandatory training, professional development, Lighthouse, & timeliness of documents submitted); and portfolio contents (see below).  The evaluation culminates in an overall rating.  

Syllabi and Faculty Reflection Forms are collected each semester and placed in instructors' folders.  This means that only the portfolio items below must be submitted on the portfolio collection form by the second Friday of November: 

• For 1st year faculty and instructors with a change in status: sample assignments/tests/projects (3 samples total). 

• For 2nd year faculty and instructors in the second year of a status change: sample assignments/tests/projects (3), and the Statement of Teaching Philosophy.  

• For 3rd year faculty and all instructors in the third year of the portfolio cycle: sample assignments/tests/projects (3), the Statement of Teaching Philosophy, Course Commentary, and Faculty Development Plan.  

Syllabi must contain:

• The instructor’s course description (such as themes and content unique to the instructor’s teaching of the course) Course objectives or outcomes, (instructors' own stated objectives/outcomes are encouraged in addition to those the department provides)

• The grading and late work policies, attendance policy, and the Academic Misconduct and Plagiarism policy (including the consequences the instructor imposes for violating the policy)

• The course schedule (at minimum an outline of units, readings, due dates for major assignments/tests--subject to change).  The course schedule must be submitted for review.  If students receive a link to the schedule online, copy-paste the schedule onto the syllabus and upload the combined single document to the collection form.

• Additional items from the appropriate CLS departmental syllabus may be required in each instructor’s course syllabus. 

Portfolios are due the Second Friday in November of the applicable academic year. If faculty teach in multiple disciplines, a discipline-specific portfolio will be required for each discipline. Failure to submit a portfolio can result in lowered evaluation ratings. 

Peer Dialogue

The new ACC Faculty Evaluation Process will include a new component: Peer Dialogue. For the purposes of obtaining your feedback as part of the revisions and final version of the Peer Dialogue Form and requirements, the Composition and Literary Studies Department will be piloting the Peer Dialogue Form for the 2023-24 academic year.  The Faculty Evaluation Committee will assess the Peer Dialogue activities and form as Complete or Incomplete.  

Please note that the Peer Dialogue is not a required service to the department.  Due to the inclusion of the Peer Dialogue report in the evaluation process, these peer activities are actually self-serving and mutually beneficial to peers as ACC’s intends: “It might be as simple as mutual class observations among several faculty members along with a discussion of those observations afterward, or a faculty study group, interest group, or learning community, or one of several other departments approved options. The point here is to engage with your peers to discuss teaching and support each other.  This can be between two or more faculty members, either from the same department or cross-discipline.”

Please review the items in the Peer Dialogue folder for suggested activities.

Peer dialogue activities should be completed within the academic year that is under annual and portfolio review. For example, activities that occur during the period of Fall 2023 - Summer 2024 will be reported on the Peer Dialogue Form and submitted during that academic year. Although ACC requires multiple meetings for this dialogue, instructors will submit only one report per academic year.  During this academic year (Fall 23-Summer 24), which is the pilot of the Peer Dialogue Form, you may submit your completed form at the end of any semester you choose.  The link to the collection form is below.  If you engage in multiple peer dialog activities, such as mentorships and interests and study groups, choose just one of these for your Peer Dialogue report.

Link to the collection form:

https://forms.gle/nsCTJWbyfXzFDG9Q7

Peer Dialogue Folder: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bACLPBdmkQL830BUC02jWGKZ4lFWPD-2?usp=sharing.

Requirements & Options (KISS)

CLS KISS (Keep It Simple Sweetheart!) Requirements & Options
This chart presents all the requirements and options for Assessment, Evaluation, Professional Development, etc. It indicates what Adjuncts and Full-timers must do, when to do it, & compensation. View & download the CLS KISS document here.