A Holistic Approach to Teaching Assessment

At Wake Forest, we are remarkably good teachers—our teaching excellence is a distinguishing feature of our identity. As teacher-scholars, we pursue excellence in the production and dissemination of knowledge: we work to understand our vast and complex world, and we seek to share that ever-increasing understanding with our students. In this formulation, we are teachers first, dedicated to engaging students in the work of transformative learning. 

Because we take teaching so seriously, then, we have a responsibility to support and assess it thoughtfully and thoroughly. The stakes of teaching evaluation are high. Assessment helps determine merit raises, reappointment, tenure, and promotions–decisions of significant consequence. Equally important, robust assessment provides the feedback that inspires us to keep refining our teaching practices.  

If it is to be meaningful, our assessment of teaching should reiterate several commitments: to providing a high-quality education to all our students; to fostering equity, consistency, and transparency in our processes; and to cultivating our own continual learning and growth as teacher-scholars. These duties are critical to our academic mission. As we successfully meet them, we make good on our promise to provide a distinctive liberal arts education to our students. Our standards and practices for evaluating teaching let us tell the story of that success.