Department Chairs

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 Manual: Faculty Evaluation Ratings.

Responsibilities of the Department chair also include:

• • Ensuring that departmental information about evaluation rubrics, weighting of criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form, and any additional evaluation requirements beyond those required by the college are decided by departmental shared governance, with the participation of both full-time and adjunct faculty and the Dean, and updated to the college website designated for this information each year. Any additional departmental policies (such as policies on grade distributions or full-time professional service) must also be posted to this site.
  • Ensuring that new faculty receive the support and formative feedback needed early in their teaching career at ACC.
  • Ensuring that all departmental faculty are informed about the faculty evaluation process and what they are expected to do each year as a part of this process.
  • Coordinating the evaluation process and giving final approval to all faculty evaluations within their department in a timely manner. It is particularly important that evaluations focus on supplying all faculty with actionable formative feedback. Clear, actionable feedback is especially important for any ratings of Approaching ACC exemplary teaching and faculty expectations or Does not meet ACC faculty expectations for any criteria.
  • Meeting with all faculty who receive an Overall Rating of Does not meet ACC faculty expectations to develop a Performance Improvement Plan and provide assistance in obtaining professional development needed to make improvements.
  • Meeting with faculty who request a conference to discuss their evaluation.
  • Ensuring that all evaluations are forwarded to the Dean for approval.

A much more detailed list of Department Chair responsibilities can be found at Faculty Evaluation Manual: Department Chair Responsibilities.