Comments on the peer reviews
The peer review committees are meant to provide the candidate with in-progress
feedback on teaching, which is the most important part of the tenure case.
Every peer review I received was positive overall.
Each also included a small number of
mild suggestions for
improvement (as an example of how low-key these were, one of the suggestions
was that I write more text on the blackboard).
I addressed all of the suggestions
in my subsequent teaching, and this is reflected
in my steadily improving student evaluations. The point of the peer reviews
is to let candidates know when they might be in trouble for tenure and to
provide
them with on-going feedback so they can have the best chance of improving
their teaching and ensuring it is of tenurable quality in time for the tenure
decision. Unfortunately, my peer reviews did not prepare me for the teaching
expectations of my P&T committee. Or, alternatively, the P&T committee chose
to ignore my peer reviews and instead use different standards and evaluations
metrics.
Randolph M. Jones
People involved in my tenure case
How (not) to get tenure at
Colby College