Department Chair Responsibilities – Overview
Important sections for Department Chairs to read in addition to this one:
Department Chairs are responsible for ensuring that all faculty in their department are evaluated fairly and according to ACC policy. Department Chairs ensure faculty receive formative feedback and access to resources necessary to support them in their faculty roles. Although Department Chairs may assign designees such as assistant department chairs or evaluation committees to review materials and assign summary ratings, the department chair must approve every evaluation. Due to the sensitive and confidential nature of evaluation information, appropriate security measures should be observed in sharing evaluation materials and summary information; designees should only be given access to sufficient information to perform their roles in the process.
For the faculty evaluation process to be truly meaningful for faculty, it is important that they receive actionable and meaningful feedback; the Annual Summary Evaluation Form is a primary mechanism through which faculty can be provided with the formative feedback necessary for faculty growth in addition to the summative ratings and comments. Every criterion should be rated and provided with supporting comments, even for faculty who receive the most positive feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Further discussion of these ratings can be found at Faculty Evaluation Ratings.
Department chairs are responsible for ensuring that materials are posted on the ACC Departmental Policies & Rubrics website that describe the following details. This information will be available to all and updated annually or as any information changes.
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- The departmental evaluation process (i.e., whether reviews will be carried out by a Committee, Assistant Department Chair(s), Peer Reviewers, etc. prior to moving on to the Department Chair)
- How the different criteria on the annual Summary Evaluation Form (Adjunct / Full-Time) will be weighted within the collegewide required guidelines in determining the Overall Rating.
- The rubrics for all criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form (Adjunct / Full-Time) – These can be developed by the department or can be taken from the rubrics provided by the college or from elsewhere or any combination of those. A basic starting point for a rubric can be found here (there is no requirement to use this one, however).
- The rubrics, the weightings of the criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form (Adjunct / Full-Time) and any additional required departmental evaluation components beyond those required by the College must be developed through departmental shared governance process, in consultation with full-time and adjunct faculty.
Prior to the Evaluation
It is important that the following are all completed in time for all faculty to have ample time to prepare their evaluation materials and be well informed about the evaluation process.
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- Department Chairs are responsible for coordinating faculty notifications at the beginning of each year related to the evaluation cycle. These notifications include which materials faculty must submit at the end of that year, particularly reminding them of time-sensitive actions that occur during the course of the year, such as the Peer Dialog and Purposeful Change. Departments should also facilitate helping faculty to connect with others for the Peer Dialog. It is particularly important that faculty required to submit materials for a non-standard year of the cycle (e.g., as a result of requiring course materials again to address a Performance Improvement Plan) are reminded of this early enough to make necessary changes and gather the necessary materials.
- Faculty submitting course materials should be informed exactly what course materials are to be submitted for which class sections. (Recall that faculty who have taught more than 3 years at the College are only required to submit course materials for one or two courses in the third year of their cycle; some departments may choose to review and provide feedback on additional course materials as long as this is applied to all departmental faculty. Faculty in their first 3 years of service will submit at least two courses each year, or more as determined by the department.) If the department determines the classes to be submitted, the specific classes must be communicated to the faculty well in advance of evaluation submission deadlines.
- Departmental expectations for faculty grade distributions, if any, should be determined and communicated to all faculty. Since these expectations can reasonably vary not only between departments but also between courses, there is no college-wide standard for this, but it is strongly recommended that expectations take into account that grades in a single class might vary from expectations due to the specific makeup of that class.
- The online location where departmental evaluation rubrics and department-specific requirements are posted as well as links to how evaluation materials are to be submitted. (Departments may choose to post this on departmental web pages, but these must be kept consistent with the required information posted on the ACC Departmental Policies & Rubrics website and must be kept updated as changes are made to departmental policies.) If the department requires any additional materials beyond the standard college requirements, that should be clearly communicated here.
- Clear deadlines for submission of Faculty Reflection Forms and other evaluation components