Narrative Teaching Evaluations
(not required for the pre-tenure contract renewal)
NB: See Appendix E on COVID Redress Policies for notes on Narrative Evaluations
A new version of this site was created, following the June 24 Bylaws update. This is now the ARCHIVED site.
(not required for the pre-tenure contract renewal)
NB: See Appendix E on COVID Redress Policies for notes on Narrative Evaluations
Narratives should be requested and coordinated through Mai Savelle for two of the three semesters preceding evaluation for those bein reviewed for tenure or full professor only (note that "evaluation" specifically means the spring semester in which you submit your file). Within those two semesters, you must conduct narrative evaluations in all courses taught that semester (exceptions for SMPs or other single student experiences in most disciplines).
If that "two of the three semesters preceding evaluation" window would be interrupted by one- or two semesters of sabbatical, then count the three eligible semesters as close to, but not including, the block you're on leave. So for example, if you intend to be on sabbatical in Fa'21-Sp'22 and stand for full professor in Sp'23, then you should plan to collect narratives in any two semesters that would include Fa'20, Sp'21, and Fa'22.
Narrative evaluations should be administered by your chair/coordinator or another tenured member of the department. Either the chair or your building's office associate will retain all narrative evaluations in sealed envelopes until after grades have been submitted, upon which time you may retrieve and review the documents for inclusion in your file.
[NB: The Dean of Faculty's office has a process to administer narratives electronically during remote/hybrid instruction; see below. When responding to Mai Savelle's all-faculty call for those needing narratives, copy in the Associate VP for Academic Affairs to arrange electronic narrative evaluations.]
Scan all narratives into PDFs for each course and label by semester and class (eg, Fa17_PHIL101). Collect all in a Google drive folder titled "narrative evaluations," then Insert on this page through "Drive Folder" menu. Be sure to scan both completed and empty narrative forms so that the number is aligned with course enrollment.
Only during periods of remote or hybrid instruction, this process is used for the entire class being evaluated.
To simulate a process closest to what we do in a traditional semester, the goal is to:
Use the same document format that students have completed in the past, and that the candidate will have on file from previous semesters
Administer them before the last day of class
Create a system that's confidential, as conveyed to students by an administrator
Ensure high compliance (certainly higher than student online evals)
Return them to the faculty member after grades are in.
The candidate notifies Mai Savelle and the Associate VP for Academic Affairs with the class number and section of each course receiving narrative evaluations. Chairs/candidates are encouraged to brief students in advance of the coming email and the narrative process.
Electronic narrative evaluations are administered to all participating classes on a pre-announced date two weeks before the last day of class. Via email, students are sent the same language read by department chairs from the usual manilla envelope cover letter from Mai Savelle explaining what narrative evaluations are and that the student is required to complete the evaluation within 3 days (this is a hollow threat, but it's our best attempt at boosting compliance). Embedded in that same email will be both a Google Form and a Word Document of our standard narrative evaluation that students can type directly into.
The Google form is anonymous and has only one question, which is a spot to confirm what class/section the student is in. The student is directed to separately complete the narrative evaluation attached to the email and then upload it into the Google form and submit.
As compared to simply sending out an email with a Word Doc attachment, the benefit of this method is that the Google Form keeps all the uploads together in one big file, preventing the need to sort through reply emails and attachments. Once grades are in, the Associate VP for Academic Affairs can share permissions with the candidate.