Improvement of instruction and teacher effectiveness: are student ratings reliable and valid?

This paper reviews the evidence on whether student ratings are reliable and valid enough to be used for the purpose of the improvement of instruction and teacher effectiveness. A consensus of evidence available in the literature tends to show a measure of consistency, stability and validity of student ratings. Several variables such as sex of rater and ratee, class size, mood of students, rank of instructors, grades students were expecting, time of the day courses are taught, to mention only a few, have been found to have a low to high positive relationship, with student ratings. It also appears that the use of student ratings leads to the improvement of instruction, provided the evaluation data are fed back to the instructor and that an expert or consultant provides assistance to the instructor.