Berkeley prof wants to nix student evals after white male profs score higher

A University of California, Berkeley professor suggested scrapping end-of-semester student evaluations for hiring, promotion, and tenure decisions after claiming that the grades and evaluations are biased against female instructors and people of color.

“Over the next few weeks, students will get the chance to evaluate their professors and TAs. They’re going to get it wrong,” UC Berkeley history professor Brian DeLaytweeted on Sunday. “They’ll be harder on women and people of color than on white men. Tenured white male faculty, in particular, should help their students understand this.”

I worked for two places that had nearly identical 1 to 5 scale scoring systems for their reviews. At both places the HR person would always start by explaining the system (everyone starts at a 3 in each evaluation area and nobody gets a 5).

At my first job for my first 18 months I was never late nor did I take any days off except for my two weeks of mandatory vacation. When my review came and the HR person gave me a 4 on attendance, I asked if we could review my attendance, use of sick days, etc. She agreed I had perfect attendance but still, nobody ever gets a 5.

They play a game so everybody ends up averaging roughly the same score so it becomes impossible to distinguish the great employees from the marginal and bad ones.

“His teaching style, I thought at the time, was a window to the past, and very unusual by the early 90s. But If you followed his methods, you learned geometry.”

Things like history, geography and such were taught differently than any mathematics.
You had to follow the equation through to the conclusion and most questions were answered by the time the equation was completed.
Hardheaded me took a while to figure that out. Sounds like you went with the flow and let the process work itself out.

My first lessons were from a great aunt who taught in a one room schoolhouse. Talk about a window into the past!
Her methods were probably very similar to his.

“My first lessons were from a great aunt who taught in a one room schoolhouse.”

My mother taught in a one room schoolhouse in Canada——she LOVED “working with figures”,as she called it.

“My mother taught in a one room schoolhouse in Canada——she LOVED “working with figures”,as she called it.”

My great aunt called it “working with figures” too! A common term back in the day.

When I was around 8 y/o it was decided to tear down her old schoolhouse. It had been used as a barn and the area around it was by then a cow pasture.
When told it was being torn down she requested a last visit to the place she had spent decades teaching the youngsters. She was told the building would be torn down the following Wednesday, if she wanted to come by before they started they would wait for her.

I went with her that morning. We found a group of local men already there. More people came as she talked to them.
After a while she reached into the suitcase she called a purse and pulled out her old hand bell and started ringing it. All those people, the giants of my youth, filed into the old building and took a place.
She started talking to them and time flew.
I remember my mom and a neighbor lady bringing sandwiches, milk and tea sometime during the day.
I sat on the dirty old floor and listened as those people, who to me were like the Lords disciples, talked about attending that school and being taught by her, schoolboy crushes, schoolgirl flights of fancy. First loves, first kisses and everything you could think of.
There was no demolition that day, week or month. It wasn’t until most of those folks died that the building was torn down.
I remember asking my mom why they left the building standing. “No one wants to tear away an important part of their lives” was her reply.
I understand better now than I did then.

Great story about the old schoolhouse.

I don’t know if my Mom’s is still standing.

Friends of our bought one in upstate New York and used it as a second home.They added a small wing for a full bath and laundry..great place.

Wow. She must have really made an impression.
Both being immigrants was another bond/shared experience.
It was great they kept in touch.

I’m sure the old one room schools allowed the teachers and students to have better relationships than the large impersonal schools today.
Add the fact that her schoolhouse was within walking distance of all her students homes gave her the ability to visit their homes.
Those old community schools had a lot going for them.

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