Evaluating students’ evaluations of professors

Michela Braga (michela.braga@unibocconi.it), Marco Paccagnella and Michele Pellizzari

Economics of Education Review, 2014, vol. 41, issue C, 71-88

Abstract: This paper contrasts measures of teacher effectiveness with the students’ evaluations for the same teachers using administrative data from Bocconi University. The effectiveness measures are estimated by comparing the performance in follow-on coursework of students who are randomly assigned to teachers. We find that teacher quality matters substantially and that our measure of effectiveness is negatively correlated with the students’ evaluations of professors. A simple theory rationalizes this result under the assumption that students evaluate professors based on their realized utility, an assumption that is supported by additional evidence that the evaluations respond to meteorological conditions.

Keywords: Teacher quality; Postsecondary education; Students’ evaluations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I20 M55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (50)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Evaluating students' evaluations of professors (2011)
Working Paper: Evaluating students’ evaluations of professors (2011)
Working Paper: Evaluating Students' Evaluations of Professors (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:41:y:2014:i:c:p:71-88

DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.04.002

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