Does Better Teaching Mean Higher Salaries: What We Learn From Student Evaluations of Teaching

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 7
  In Roundtable Session: Improving Teaching and Teaching Evaluations

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the role student evaluations of teaching (SETs) play in faculty salaries. Unlike most prior salary studies, teaching effectiveness was indicated by SETs. Analytical data include a total of 886 faculty teaching 2,255 courses in a Doctoral/Professional University. Guided by human capital theory, human capital indicators (years of service, tenure status, discipline unit, and teaching scores) were used to predict faculty salary, controlling for gender and ethnicity. Results provided that a unit change in the SET score, resulted in approximately a $2,600 salary difference. Faculty and administrators should engage in dialogue regarding the extent to which the value realized in salary dollars via SETs is in alignment with institutional goals.

Authors

• Susan Troncoso Skidmore, Sam Houston State University

• Hsien-Yuan Hsu, University of Massachusetts Lowell

• Stacey L. Edmonson, Sam Houston State University