Interesting article in yesterday’s Boston Globe:  Harvard Studies Ways to Promote Teaching, by Marcella Bombardieri:

Harvard University today begins a new effort to figure out how to improve teaching and make it a bigger factor in whether professors get tenure or raises. If successful, the initiative could counter Harvard’s image as a school that allows professors to neglect undergraduates in favor of the research that wins them grants, book prizes, and fame.

Harvard officials also hope to spur changes at universities around the country. Nationally, American higher education is drawing accusations of smugness and complacency. A report from a panel established by US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said colleges and universities should be more accountable for students’ learning….

Harvard already has a system for students to evaluate their professors, but Skocpol said she would like to see professors evaluating one another’s classes as well, just as they critique one another’s academic articles and books….[S]he hopes that Harvard will offer tenure to more people who are outstanding teachers, even if their research achievements are not necessarily the best….

Universities like Harvard, he said, evaluate scholarship as the Michelin restaurant guide would: “Is this the best person in the world?" But they use a much different standard to assess teaching: “Is this person so awful as a teacher that it would actually be harmful to students?"

(Hat Tip:  Eric Lustig.)