Factors affecting student evaluation of college faculty members

Abstract

Merit-rating rank scores assigned to 19 faculty members by their students (ranking distributions based on approximately 1500 cases) were correlated with grading leniency and absence extensiveness rankings for the instructors. Grading leniency correlated .73 (N = 13) with the merit rating on the freshman-sophomore level, and .43 (N = 17) on the junior-sevior level. Absence extensiveness correlated negatively on both academic levels. It is hypothesized that the decrease in correlation with grading leniency could be accounted for by the selection process operating during the freshman-sophomore years. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)