Department Chairs

Department chairs are pivotal to a meaningful evaluation process.  Providing actionable, formative feedback and clear documentation of any suggestions for improvement, when needed, on a faculty’s Annual Summary Evaluation Form are the primary mechanisms for making sure that ACC exemplary teaching criteria are met. Every criterion should be rated and provided with supporting comments, even for faculty who receive the most positive feedback and highest rating. Further discussion of these ratings can be found at Faculty Evaluation Manual: Faculty Evaluation Ratings.

Responsibilities of the Department chair include:

• • Ensuring that all faculty in their department are evaluated in accordance with ACC policy and the ACC Faculty Evaluation Process and that appropriate security measures are observed.
  • Annually reviewing and updating, as needed, departmental information on evaluation rubrics,weighting of criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form, and department policies on the ACC Faculty Evaluation Departmental Policies and Rubrics Website in accordance with Faculty Evaluation Procedures and departmental shared governance.
  • Ensuring that new faculty receive the support and formative feedback needed early in their teaching career at ACC
  • Being certain 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.