Why the Costs of Student Evaluations Have Long Since Exceeded Their Value.

The article presents student evaluations with a cross-section of academicians, administrators, students and constituencies such as parents, employers and the public-at large. An advantage of an historical and a cross-sectional perspective is that it provides a vantage point to contemplate both strengths and weaknesses of changes over time and their perceived net effect. It also offers opinion of authors in this "Educators' Forum" perspective on student evaluations, suggesting that the costs of these instruments have long since exceeded their value. As members of a discipline, which strives to measure economic reality, cognizant of both the strengths and weaknesses in measurement tools and the behavioral implications of measuring, authors believe academic institutions need to reconsider the adage "you get what you measure." When student evaluations began, the value ascribed to the instrument was to obtain feedback from the students because they had a unique vantage point to offer commentaries and suggestions to the professor and some basic assurances to administrators.