Student Evaluations, Research Productivity, and Eminence of College Faculty

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Abstract
The relationship of a professor's involvement in research to his classroom performance has been vigorously disputed for some time, but discussions of this problem have been largely polemical. This study determines empirically the relationship of these two dimensions of academic competence for a national sample of 16 colleges and universities. Two measures of the research role are used: (1) publication score, based upon a weighted summary of articles and books written over a 20 year period, and(b)a citation score (eminence), based upon the number of times a scholar's work was cited by others over a ten-year period. Since research activity does not seem to be closely related to classroom performance, several other factors which might influence classroom performance were also considered: there is a very small positive correlation (.08, N = 4646) between teaching rating and course level with more advanced courses receiving more favorable ratings. Enrollment or class size is curvilinearly related to teaching rating with instructors in smaller and very large classes receiving highest ratings. Ratings also vary systematically by field. From this data it would appear that teacher ratings are only partly due to individual differences in teaching abilities but also vary with position within the social structure of the university. Some of the conflicting implications of the research findings for University policy are considered.

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