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MSSC Panel Probes 2 Instructor EvaluationsBy MARTA POYNOR Globe Staff WriterAn investigation into the possibility that student evaluations of two instructors at Missouri Southern State College may have been tampered with is being conducted by the Personnel Committee of the college’s Faculty Senate, according to sources at the college.The investigation, requested by the two instructors, seeks to determine whether the evaluations were in fact tampered with, and if so, by whom and for what purpose.The sources report that the probe was triggered after apparent discrepancies were discovered in Student Instructional Reports (SIRs) after they were completed by students during the fall semester of 1978. The two instructors, both assistant professors of English, sought the investigation because their SIR results were “peculiarly” inconsistent with their past evaluation scores.The Personnel Committee has received two letters from the Educational Testing Service of Princeton University, which is responsible for computing the standardized questionnaires, stating that eraser marks were found on certain questions on the two instructors’ evaluations.Additionally, one professor at the college has conducted statistical analyses on the SIRs in question, and it was determined that the probability of such inconsistencies occurring by pure chance is perhaps one in 10 billion.The possibility of legal action being taken on the issue will be discussed during a meeting today of the Teaching Faculty Association, the MSSC chapter of the National Education Association.The SIRs are administered to students, usually during the 14th and 15th week of each fall semester, to give them the opportunity to evaluate an instructor’s performance in suchareas as class preparation, quality of examinations and lectures, how well class objectives are followed and how concerned the instructor was with student progress.According to Dr. Floyd Belk, interim president and vice president for academic affairs, the student evaluations were initiated at the college in 1967, but during the 1974-75 school year the college decided to revise the evaluations to make them more comprehensive. It was at that time that the SIRs of the Educational Testing Service were selected for use at MSSC.In addition to the SIRs, instructors also are evaluated in two other areas to assist the administration in its consideration of promotions, salaries and tenure of instructors, Belk explained. The other areas of evaluation include administrative assessment, conducted by department heads, and analyses of instructors’ out-of-class activities and professional affiliations. Each of the three areas is assigned point values, and of the 100 points which may be accumulated on the total evaluation, the SIRs are most significant, making up 45 points.Belk commented that students are often somewhat careless in completing the SIRs. Therefore, during the administering of the evaluations during last fall semester, they were told which are key, or important, questions so that they could give those questions more thought when filling out the SIR Belk noted that generally students rate the faculty members high on the SIRs.The evaluation’s questions are clustered in five specific areas. However, only one key question in each cluster is used by the MSSC administration in its final evaluation of each instructor, Belk said. In the case of the two professors whose evaluations allegedly have been tampered with, inconsistencies were found on those five key questions.According to Dr. Robert Markman, associate professor of history and chairman of the Personnel Com-mittee, the two letters from the Educational Testing Service stated that eraser marks found were on key questions and that there were more erasures than should occur at random.Another source reported that one of the letters stated that in the case of one instructor, more than 100 erasures were found on key evaluation questions, changing the answers from high to low scores.The two SIRs were referred for statistical analysis to Dr. Merrell Junkins, head of the Department of Psychology.Junkins explained that the analysis looks at two variables — in this case the key and non-key questions — and the way in which they are dispersed and relate to each other. He noted that the scores of each cluster of questions should correspond, along with the scores on the key and non-key questions. In the case of the two SIRs being investigated, the scores on the key questions did not correspond with the non-key questions.“There were peculiarities, which were unusual to say the least,” Junkins said of the analyses of the evaluations. “It could happen, but it’s a rarity,” he said of the inconsistencies in the evaluation scores.Junkins said the “peculiarities” could have resulted from a variety of situations — perhaps the students intentionally gave low ratings on the key questions, or the Educational Testing Service was in error, or the scores were tampered with.“Keep in mind that a statistic is not proof,” he explained. “It doesn't tell what’s wrong, only that something is causing peculiarities.”The student evaluations are generally administered by heads of respective departments. However, due to the workload of the head of the Department of Language and Literature, the SIRs for professors in that department were administered during the last fall semester by members of the Student Personnel Services, sources said. After the students completed the evaluations, they were routinely turned over to Belk.The SIRs were for-warded for computation to the Educational Testing Service some six weeks after being completed by students and turned over to Belk’s office, one source reported.The testing service provides computer printouts of the SIRs from each instructor’s class. These include percentile rankings of each question evaluated, which take the form of ratings from 10 to 90 The discrepancies in the two instructors’ evaluations were reflected in those percentile rankings, the sources said.In the case of one of the instructors, Dr. Rosemary Curb, who has resigned after three years of teaching at MSSC, the percentile rankings generally were in the 70 to 90 percentiles. However, she received percentiles of 10 on each of the five key questions, which, according to Markman is “beyond the tables of probability.”Curb resigned earlier this year, but only after the non-extension of her contract was rescinded so she could resign in good standing. Initially, she was notified that her contract would not be renewed in December, after the SIRs were administered but before their results were returned to MSSC.Belk, in a letter to Curb, cited “continuing unsatisfactory faculty-adminis-trator relationship” as the reason her contract was not renewed..However, Curb viewed the failure to renew her contract as a “reprisal for seeking defense against harrassment from the administration in an incident early in fall 1978.”She explained that she sought legal counsel after the dean of the Division of Arts and Sciences, Dr. Harold Cooper, placed restrictions on her use of college facilities, specifically the mailing room, which she said hampered her “professional performance.”When contacted by The Globe, the second assistant professor whose SIRs are being examined declined to be identified and would not comment on the probe because it has been placed in the hands of the PersonnelCommittee.Belk also has refrained from commenting, citing the same reason.According to Markman, the discrepancies in theSIRs are “a really messy matter . . . It’s very circumstantial . . . Having two examples of this makes it very difficult to establish motive . . . It’s hard to see a connection between these two instructors.” He noted that the remainder of the college faculty was asked to examine its SIRs for inconsistencies, but no others have come to light.Markman stated furtherthat the Personnel Committee is “pushing alongwith the investigation, hoping to tie up some looseends.”Because the Faculty Senate assigned the investigation to the Personnel Committee, the committee will be issuing a report of its findings to the senate. Markman noted that the Board of Regents and the college’s new president, Dr. Donald Darnton, are aware of the investigation.Markman said that eventually the findings and recommendations of the committees and members of the administration involved in the investigation will be turned over to the Board of Regents, which will be responsible for determining what type of action will be taken.Curb believes that firm action should be taken.“It really is slander,” she said. “It’s an offense for which something should be done legally.”The possibility that legal action will be taken has not been dismissed. Mel Hilgenberg, National Education Association UniServ director for Southwest Missouri, in fact has recommended such action be taken by the Teaching Faculty Association. Therecommendation will be discussed during today’s meeting of the association, said Dr. Rochelle Boehn-ing, associate professor of mathematics and president of the association.£br Joplin (5lobtPublished every momma atThe Jopl*n Globe Publishing Company a division of Ottawoy Newspapers Inc II? tost 4thStreet Joplin Missouri 64001 telephone 623 3480 SecondClass Postage paid at Joplm Mo Publication number 10USPS 276 880 Subscriptionrates By mail morning andSunday m the first ond second postal zones is ISO 00 per yeor Beyond second postal zone$57 SO per year
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Joplin Globe
Joplin, Missouri, US
Fri, Jun 08, 1979
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