So what IS a fair evaluation system for teachers?

[Posteritatis]

11. I'd say student evals should be considered, but probably not to the extent you're reacting to

From what I've heard from profs I've spoken to (and a friend who's a prof and a professional mathemetician), student evals are usually distributed in a typical enough way that you can almost predict the general gist of them on the first day, or at least by the time the first set of assignments goes back to the students. The general pattern is automatic enough that of course it isn't really relevant, because it doesn't say much of anything and follows a few standard rules, e.g., students with higher grades tend to give better evaluations, and vice versa.

The school I did my BA at would ask students what grade they anticipated from the course and what grade they thought they should be getting from the course, on top of the other ratings. If those were weirdly at odds - a student anticipating a D who thinks they deserve a B, or vice versa, for example - there might be something in the written part of their eval that might be worth looking at, or the prof might get some questions if half the students in a course have that kind of pattern. If a student's doing really well and slags the instructor, there might be something up there too - not to mention a student who expects they're only going to get a mediocre grade at best but who still sings the instructor's praises.

One of my favorite profs was one of those - absolutely brutal grader whose bell curves peaked around a D or C- and who warned his classes about that ahead of time - but people loved his classes and generally considered them high-grade brain steak even if he'd kick their GPAs' asses a lot. I'd see some pretty competent students feeling very proud about getting a C from him if they were used to Bs elsewhere, or going directly over the moon if they got a high B or anything in the A range. In terms of his students' grade performance he only came across as mediocre, but the school was aware of his students' reactions to the material, and they liked it enough that they'd go to the department on their own initiative about it at times.

I don't know how, or if, that sort of thing can be measured in any real formal way at the college level, and of course it gets even harder at the K-12 level (and more and more so as you deal with younger students who can't express that sort of thing with as much nuance yet). And it definitely shouldn't be one of the primary things evaluations are based on! But I do think there's some benefit to being aware of how the students feel as they come away from a given instructor's work.