USC Excellence in Teaching Initiative
About
Peer Reviewed ✔ | Editorial Board Score: 13/18
Excellence in Teaching Initiative
Center for Excellence in Teaching
Contact: Ginger Clark (ginger.clark@usc.edu)
Peer review will be based on classroom observation, and review of course materials, course design and assignments. Peer evaluators also will consider teaching reflection statements and inclusive practices.
The Academic Senate convened a Faculty Evaluation Task Force in 2013. The resulting white paper was reviewed by the full Academic Senate in December, 2013. The final paper was sent to the Provost's office in February, 2014. Teaching is covered on pages 3 and 4.
The Provost convened a 2016 Task Force on Teaching Effectiveness populated by faculty from across schools and disciplines to consider ways to improve and assess teaching effectiveness. A report was submitted that included recommendations for promoting and assessing teaching effectiveness.
The Senate/Provost Committee on Teaching and Academic Programs built on those recommendations, and developed a set of recommendations for teaching excellence at USC. This report was presented to the Academic Senate in May 2017, and submitted to the Provost.
Recently, the Provost convened a second Task Force on Teaching Excellence populated by faculty from across disciplines to address specific issues in teaching, such as undergraduate first-year education. Their work is ongoing, but preliminary recommendations have been made to provide resources and recognition to faculty who teach high impact first-year GE courses.
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic interrupting progress on change implementation with slow progress since then. Tenure and promotion guidelines have been strengthened to include peer evaluation. Schools are slowly implementing peer review into their teaching evaluation structures. USC has a robust training program for facultywith good utilization. The provost office is conducting oversight and flagging schools that have not yet implemented peer review into evaluation or don't have strong teaching criteria as part of merit and promotion.
More information about this initiative »
Notes from the Teaching Evaluation Repository Editorial Board
Additional Information
Audience: College/university staff, Teaching center staff, Departmental leaders, Faculty with long-term appointments, Faculty with short-term appointments, Institution administration, Institutional awards committees
Level of Intervention: Teaching center, Program, Department/unit, College, Institution - administration, Institution - shared governance
Resource Type: Interactive collection of materials (e.g., workbook), Report
Institution Type: R1, 4-year
Scale of Change: 1 year, 3-5 years, Self-implemented
Framework Emphasis: SoTL frameworks
Tools/Materials for Evaluation: Peer observation
Processes for Revising Teaching Evaluation: Department level evaluation revision, Faculty governance reframing teaching evaluation, Senior-level administrative leaders