L&S Policy for Evaluating Short-Term Instructional Academic Staff
This document contains the L&S Policy for Evaluating Short-Term Instructional Academic Staff (often referred to as short-term staff, or STS).
Approved by L&S Academic Planning Council, November 16, 2006, in consultation with L&S Committee on Academic Staff Issues et al. Reaffirmed by L&S Senior Staff on March 3, 2014.
Scope
This policy applies to short-term instructional academic staff (lecturers, teaching faculty, teaching specialists, etc.). For guidance on graduate students hired as Lecturer (SA)s, please see Lecturer (SA) appointments in L&S: Selection, Hiring & Supervision
Policy
Departments and programs that employ short-term instructional acdemic staff are required to have a process in place to evaluate teaching performance.
Short-term instructional academic staff appointments are governed by Academic Staff Policies and Procedures. ASPP 10.06 requires that new employees be informed of the unit's procedures for performance review at the time of appointment.
Evaluation
The form of evaluation is set by the department or program with the participation of its academic staff. The minimum College expectation is that it will include:
- classroom observation of new (defined as a first time appointee in the department in any of the above titles) short-term instructional academic staff early in the semester for the purpose of teaching improvement and mentoring;
- classroom observation in each semester of appointment for the evaluation of teaching performance; and
- a mechanism for student evaluations of short-term instructors each semester.
For online courses, field courses, supervision of internship courses, etc. the department or program will need to arrange an equivalent observation.
Record Keeping
A copy or summary sheet of such evaluations should be provided to the staff member and placed in the departmental personnel file. All written evaluations of teaching performance should be placed in the staff member’s departmental personnel file and teaching performance should be a criterion in any future hiring decision.