Faculty Evaluation – Library Services (G/P)

This guideline/procedure details the underlying policies and outlines the overall procedures of the faculty librarian evaluation process at Austin Community College District (“ACC” or “the College”).

The College values quality teaching and a learning environment that supports the continuous enhancement of the professional skills of its faculty. The purpose of faculty evaluation is to support exemplary teaching and librarianship through a process that is transparent, fair, formative, and results in actionable information faculty librarians can use for continuous enhancement of faculty librarian teaching, librarianship, and equitable student learning and success.

Policies

1. Collegewide expectations for teaching at ACC are summarized in the Exemplary Teaching Statement:
   • ACC faculty are committed to exemplary teaching that engenders equity and student success and is guided by ACC Faculty Values. Intentionally using innovative, evidence-based teaching practices, faculty creatively foster critical thinking, student engagement, learning, persistence, achievement, and sense of purpose. While cultivating a culture of belonging and inclusiveness for all students, faculty pursue excellence and continuous improvement in course design, teaching strategies, assessment and feedback, and student learning.
   • To meet the highest level of exemplary practice, faculty seek out new strategies to intentionally nurture and respect learners’ strengths, interests, needs, and cultures. Faculty commit to continuous mastery of their disciplines and teaching pedagogy as well as engagement in ongoing reflective practices in support of lifelong learning.
2. Transparency – All faculty members have the right to know how they will be evaluated before submitting evaluation materials. As such, the College will develop and maintain a website that includes links to the Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual and associated materials along with the following information provided by each instructional department. This information will be available to all and updated annually and as any information changes:
   1. The departmental evaluation process for full-time faculty librarians, which parallels the faculty evaluation process for faculty with course teaching responsibilities.
   2. The rubrics or standards adopted by the department for all criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form. These can be developed by the department or can be taken from the rubrics provided by the college or elsewhere, or any combination of those.
   3. How the different criteria on the Summary Evaluation Form will be used in determining the Overall Rating, along with the scale for determining that rating.
3. Consistency – In support of contributing to an atmosphere of equity and transparency in the faculty evaluation process, faculty librarian evaluations will be consistently administered across the College. This applies particularly to:
   1. Ratings for each of the Criteria indicated on the Summary Evaluation Form used in determining the Overall Rating must follow the standards established in Procedures determined by the Library Leadership Team through the departmental shared governance process, in consultation with full time faculty librarians.
   2. All head librarians will follow the same calendar for faculty librarian evaluations.
4. Formative – For the faculty evaluation process to be truly meaningful, it is important that faculty librarians receive actionable, meaningful feedback from multiple sources: departmental reviewers (head librarians or Dean), peer dialogue, and self-reflection. The purpose of the faculty evaluation is to provide faculty librarians with the formative feedback necessary for faculty growth in addition to the necessary summative ratings and comments.
5. Continuous updating of the process – Faculty evaluation is a dynamic process. It is important that the process be updated on a regular basis over time in order to keep pace with the changing needs of our students and the college. In order to support this continuing need to monitor and tweak the process, there will be established a Faculty Librarian Evaluation Workgroup that reports to the Faculty Evaluation Steering Committee. The charge for this committee is:
   1. Systematically collect feedback from faculty librarians and head librarians about problems and concerns related to the faculty evaluation process each year.
   2. Provide a central collection point for faculty librarian feedback about the evaluation process.
   3. Each year, review this feedback and determine procedural tweaks that could be made to improve the process moving forward and recommend those that seem most advantageous to the college; particular attention should be paid to balancing the importance of this process to faculty librarians and the college with the workload imposed on head librarians and Deans.
   4. Evaluate, monitor, and make recommendations concerning the software used by the college to collect and expedite the faculty librarian evaluation process.
   5. Every 5 years, conduct a holistic review of the faculty librarian evaluation process and determine what changes are recommended to improve the overall process. These changes will need to be approved through the shared governance process requiring the recommendation of the Faculty Development and Evaluation Committee and the approval of the Academic and Student Affairs Council.
   6. Research ways to make the faculty evaluation process more meaningful and useful to both individual faculty librarians and head librarians as well as the College.

Procedures

1. Portfolio and Evaluation Calendar summary – Faculty librarian evaluations occur annually according to timelines adjusted by HR and the Dean of Library Services, usually during the months of May or June. All head librarians are then evaluated by their next level supervisor (Dean of Library Services) once all performance reviews for classified staff and faculty librarian evaluations have been completed, before the end of the academic year.
2. All materials for a given academic year are submitted by faculty librarians to the head librarian or Dean by the deadline set by the department, prior to the faculty librarian evaluation. The evaluations are carried out according to the departmental timeline as listed above, and evaluations for faculty librarians are completed by the end of the academic year, with the possible exception of faculty librarians in their first 90 days at the College or where a conference with the head librarian or Dean was requested. Materials include the following:
   1. Goal Setting Document- the Goal Setting document for each academic year is created at the beginning of the academic year and is submitted to the head librarian during the first 30 days of the fall semester. These goals use the SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) format and must align with the strategic plan, exemplary teaching statement, or Chancellor priorities as well as the faculty librarian job description.
   2. Evaluation of Library Faculty Form- This form is aligned with faculty librarian and head librarian job descriptions in order to provide faculty performance feedback. This form is used for both self and supervisor evaluations, and there are sections for comments from both.  There is also a section to list accomplishments related to the goals set at the beginning of the academic year.  This form is required to be submitted as a self-evaluation by the faculty librarian to the supervisor one week before the scheduled evaluation appointment.  The supervisor submits both the self and supervisor evaluation forms to the Dean when the process has been completed.
   3. Faculty Librarian Reflection Form – The Faculty Librarian Reflection Form is meant to encourage more thoughtful reflection on teaching and student learning, leading to more formative feedback for faculty. This form is required to be submitted to the supervisor at the end of the fall and spring semesters each academic year.  The form asks faculty librarians to reflect on their teaching and learning experiences, their students’ experiences, their collection development or technical services experiences, their professional development activities, and their professional services each semester.  In addition, head librarians are asked to include reflection of their library management experiences on this form.  During year 3 of the evaluation cycle, faculty librarians will include overall goals for their professional development activities for the next three years on the Spring Faculty Librarian Reflection form.  Head librarians will be asked to also reflect on administrative work, describing how it aligns with ACC Faculty Values and the academic master plan in their professional development goals.
   4. Other annual portfolio evaluation These materials are submitted by the deadline set by the department. Materials include the following:
      1. Peer dialogue – The Peer dialogue is meant to provide an additional perspective in a 360⁰ It should lead to a more formative assessment with peer feedback and learning about teaching and learning.  This is an unevaluated activity that is required once every three years, in year 1 of the evaluation cycle.  It is meant to encourage faculty librarians to support, learn from, share and provide formative feedback for each other about teaching and student learning.  The faculty librarian will report on this activity but the results will not be rated or used in the evaluation beyond the fact of its completion on the portfolio checklist.  The report, due in year 1 of the evaluation cycle, will be submitted to the supervisor before the evaluation appointment.
      2. Purposeful Change – The Purposeful Change is meant to encourage ongoing faculty reflection, experimentation, and innovation. Once every three years, in year 2 of the evaluation cycle, each faculty librarian will decide upon some focused, purposeful change to make in their teaching that year in order to improve student success in some specific manner.  During year 2, they will attempt to implement that change and reflect on whether it accomplished what was intended, led to some completely different outcome than expected, or didn’t really work.  The supervisor will discuss the librarian’s reasoning, planning, and analysis of the outcome for the purposeful change at the librarian’s evaluation.
      3. Faculty Values Framework and CV – The Faculty Values Framework and updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) provides faculty librarians an opportunity to not only reflect upon their current work but also espouse how that work aligns and connects to one of the ACC Faculty Values. Once every three years, in year 3 of the evaluation cycle, faculty librarians will submit this summative reflection to the supervisor at the same time as the Spring Faculty Librarian Reflection Form.
   5. Summary Evaluation Form – Evaluation materials for the academic year will be reviewed by the supervisor before the evaluation appointment. During the evaluation appointment, work and portfolio materials will be reviewed and faculty librarians will receive the Evaluation of Library Faculty Form completed by the supervisor and the Summary Evaluation From.  The faculty librarian will review the Overall Rating and supervisor comments for feedback during the evaluation appointment.  This feedback is meant to provide actionable and meaningful comments for the faculty librarian.  After reading, faculty librarians should approve, sign, date and return the Summary Evaluation form in a timely manner.  Signing the form does not imply agreement with everything contained in the form, but the faculty librarian received and reviewed the form.  At that time, faculty librarians also have the following options available:
      1. Enter a response to the feedback or rating on the form.
      2. Request an appointment with the Dean and if needed, the Associate Vice Chancellor (AVC) to discuss the feedback or rating on the form.
      3. If, after meeting with the supervisor and AVC, faculty librarians still have unresolved grievances, they may dispute the outcome of the evaluation according to Administrative Rule 4.0702.01 Resolution of an Employee Grievance.
         After all forms have obtained the required signatures, a copy of the completed Summary Evaluation Form will be returned to the faculty librarian after any requested conferences have been completed. The Dean reviews all evaluations and either approves them or requests clarification from the head librarian.  The Dean may also enter additional comments into the Summary Evaluation Form.  The Dean is responsible for ensuring that any faculty discipline issues have been appropriately addressed.  If the faculty librarian requests a conference with the Dean, the Dean coordinates a conference and fills out and approves a Supplemental Conference Form to attach to the Summary Evaluation Form.  A copy of all approved forms is then returned to faculty.  The Dean retains copies of all Summary Evaluation Forms and, if applicable, their attached Supplemental Conference Forms according to evaluation record retention requirements.  The Dean is also responsible for evaluating head librarians in their area of responsibility.
   6. Record Retention – Although departments are expected to maintain copies of all evaluation materials for at least three years, it is recommended that faculty librarians maintain copies of their own materials for at least that period of time as well.
3. Criteria in the Summary Evaluation Form – Each of the criteria in bold will receive a rating and supporting comments based upon the posted departmental standards and rubric. The Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual provides guidance on what the supervisor should look for, where to find it, and what standards need to be met for each rating.
   1. Teaching and Student Learning
      1. Instructional Performance – this rating should be based upon departmental and college-wide requirements and expectations, especially the Exemplary Teaching Statement and faculty or head librarian job description. Faculty librarians provide information, literacy/library instruction and curriculum design, develop, and deliver information literacy curriculum in different modalities within the Library Services information literacy instruction program.  Other instructional activities include research and instructive reference services to faculty, staff and students.  Supervisor feedback should consider the following evaluation materials as appropriate to the year of the evaluation cycle:
         1. Faculty Librarian Evaluation Form (self- and supervisor- evaluation forms each year)
         2. Faculty Librarian Reflection Forms (1 fall and 1 spring form each academic year)
         3. Peer Dialogue Report (year 1)
         4. Purposeful Change Report (year 2)
         5. Faculty Values Framework and CV Reflection (year 3)
   2. Professional Responsibilities
      1. Administrative performance – Administrative, librarianship, and/or managerial duties in the job description must be met, including the maintenance of records and statistical data on Library Service functions and services. Faculty Librarians maintain materials collections, integrated with the instructional departments of the College, and participate in Library Services budget planning, and the formulation of goals, policies and procedures as appropriate.  Other principal professional standards which appear in the job description include the following:
         1. Appropriate use of the college’s learning management system and technology
         2. Participate in graduation, general assembly, and other official college functions
         3. Maintain regular office hours to assist students and improve student retention and success
         4. Attend and participate in collegewide, campus, department, or other activities and meetings
         5. Recognize and reflect standards of civility and collegiality in all interactions
         6. Comply with published college policies and procedures and meet professional standards for teaching in a community college
         7. Submitting departmentally required documents including faculty librarian evaluation materials by the required deadlines
         8. Responding to college communications in a timely manner
         9. Fulfilling other assigned departmental duties
      2. Professional Development and Growth – This rating should reflect both professional growth and the completion of Professional Development, according to college and departmental requirements. It should also consider stated Professional Development goals and updates over time, including the following information:
         1. Goals Setting Document (each year)
         2. Faculty Librarian Reflection Form (1 fall and 1 spring from each academic year)
         3. Purposeful Change Report (year 2)
         4. Faculty Librarian Framework Form and CV (year 3)
         5. Completion of college and departmental required training
         6. Recorded faculty development hours and how they relate to college requirements and professional growth
      3. Professional – This rating should reflect any service for the department including TLF or special role assignments, for the college including hiring committees, or a for a professional or industry group, even if paid a stipend. This service should include the following inputs:  This should consider the following inputs:
         1. Faculty Librarian Reflection Form (1 fall and 1 spring from each academic year)
         2. Faculty Librarian Framework Form and CV (year 3)
         3. Other documented information regarding serviceOverall Rating – The Overall Rating on the Summary Evaluation Form is determined by combining the above individual ratings together. The Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual provides guidance on what the supervisor should look for, where to find it, and what standards needs to be met for each rating.  When providing the overall rating, it falls to the discretion of the head librarian or Dean to assign the rating although some explanation of the rating that corresponds to the standards listed in the Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual shall be provided in the Summary Statement
4. Ratings – The Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual provides guidance on what the supervisor should look for, where to find it, and what standards need to be met for each rating. All ratings of Criteria in the Summary Evaluation Form will use the following rating system:
   1. ACC exemplary teaching and faculty expectations have been met – Overall, the faculty librarian has met the teaching standards set forth in the above Statement on Exemplary Teaching, as well as other responsibilities required of faculty. Librarians in other non-instructional duties listed in their job descriptions and the Faculty Librarian Evaluation Form. Formative feedback be provided in comments.
   2. Approaching ACC exemplary teaching and faculty expectations – The faculty librarian has met many of the above standards, but there are one or more areas that do not satisfy that standard. This might be one significant issue or multiple lesser issues.
      1. Required: In addition to providing formative feedback on areas in need of improvement, the Summary Evaluation Form should contain a list of specific improvements as well as a timeline necessary to attain ACC exemplary teaching and faculty expectations have been met. These necessary improvements must be clearly communicated and faculty librarians are expected to work on improving these items by the next evaluation period.
      2. Failure to make significant progress towards addressing these issues could result in a rating of Does not meet ACC faculty expectations in the following year.
   3. Does not meet ACC faculty expectations – The faculty librarian has not met the expected teaching and/or non-instructional standards of the college in a significant manner.
      1. Required: If this rating is received in any individual areas of the Summary Evaluation Form, a list of specific improvements must be provided. A meeting with the immediate supervisor is required to develop a Performance Improvement Plan with clearly specified outcomes and timelines.
      2. The supervisor will provide assistance in obtaining professional development for skills required to make the improvements described in the Performance Improvement Plan.
      3. Failure to make significant progress on these issues within the time specified in the Performance Improvement Plan will result in further action being taken. Faculty who receives this rating will be given reasonable time and support to address and improve their performance.
5. Prior to the Evaluation process
   1. Prior to the evaluation, it is important that every faculty librarian be made aware of which materials must be submitted each year, the online location where departmental evaluation standards and requirements are posted as well as links to how evaluation materials are to be submitted, and clear deadlines for submission of all materials.
   2. New faculty librarians (less than 3 years at the college) It is important that faculty who are new to the college receive the support and formative feedback they need early in their teaching career at ACC. Prior to and during their first academic year teaching in the Department, the departments should coordinate faculty mentors and teaching observations, providing help in becoming familiar with ACC resources, systems and policies. Further, they are strongly encouraged to arrange for some formative feedback opportunities with other faculty or head librarians on curriculum design, delivery, or teaching methods. While this feedback should not be a part of the evaluation process, it is important that the college support these new faculty librarians as they begin their work at the college.
6. The Evaluation process:
   1. Evaluation components include the following as also described in the Procedures section above:
      1. Goal Setting document (submitted each year) – The Goal Setting document for each academic year and is submitted to the head librarian or Dean (as appropriate) during the first 30 days of the fall semester. These goals use the SMART goals format and must align with the ACC strategic plan, exemplary teaching statement, or Chancellor priorities as well as the faculty librarian job description.  Supervisors are expected to provide feedback to the faculty librarian regarding these goals by the end of the first 60 days of the fall semester.
      2. Evaluation of Library Faculty Form (self-evaluation is submitted each year before the supervisor evaluation appointment) – This form is aligned with the faculty librarian and head librarian job descriptions in order to provide faculty performance feedback. The same form is used for both self- and supervisor-evaluations, and there are sections for comments from both as well as a section for the faculty librarian to list accomplishments related to the Goal Setting document submitted at the beginning of the academic year.  This form is required to be submitted as a self-evaluation by the faculty librarian to the supervisor one week before the scheduled evaluation appointment.  The supervisor submits both the self- and supervisor- evaluation forms to the Dean upon completion.
      3. Faculty Librarian Reflection Form (1 fall and 1 spring form submitted each year, year 3 including professional development goals for the next 3 years on the spring form) – The Faculty Librarian Reflection Form is meant to encourage more thoughtful reflection on teaching and student learning, leading to more formative feedback for faculty. This form is required to be submitted to the supervisor by the end of the fall and spring semesters each academic year. This form asks faculty librarians to reflect on their teaching and learning experience, their students’ experiences, their collection development or technical services experiences, their professional development activities, and their professional service each semester. In addition, head librarians are asked to include reflection on their library management experiences on this form.  During year 3 of the evaluation cycle, faculty librarians will include overall goals for their professional development activities for the next three years on the spring Faculty Reflection form.  Head librarians will be asked to also reflect on their administrative work and how this work aligns with faculty values and the academic master plan in their professional development goals.
      4. Peer Dialogue Report (submitted year 1) – The Peer Dialogue provides an additional perspective in a 360⁰ It should lead to a more formative assessment with peer feedback and learning about teaching and learning.  This is an unevaluated activity that is required once every 3 years, in year 1 of the evaluation cycle.  It is meant to encourage faculty librarians to support, learn from, share, and provide formative feedback for each other about teaching and student learning.  The faculty librarian will report on this activity but the results will not be rated or used in the evaluation beyond the fact of its completion on the portfolio checklist.  The report, due in year 1 of the evaluation cycle, will be submitted to the supervisor one week before the evaluation appointment.
      5. Purposeful Change (submitted year 2) – The Purposeful Change is meant to encourage ongoing faculty reflection, experimentation, and innovation. Once every 3 years, in year 2 of the evaluation cycle, each faculty librarian will decide upon some focused, purposeful change to make in their teaching that year in order to improve student success in some specific manner. During year 2, they will attempt to implement that change and reflect on whether it accomplished what was intended, led to some completely different outcome than expected, or didn’t really work. The supervisor will discuss the librarian’s reasoning, planning, and analysis of the outcome for the purposeful change at the librarian’s evaluation. Once every 3 years, in year 2 of the evaluation cycle, faculty librarians will submit the Purposeful Change report to the supervisor at the same time as the spring Faculty Reflection form.
      6. Faculty Values Framework (submitted year 3) – The Faculty Values Framework and updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) provides faculty librarians an opportunity to reflect upon their current work but also espouse how that work aligns and connects to one of the ACC Faculty Values. Once every 3 years, in year 3 of the evaluation cycle, faculty librarians will submit this summative reflection to the supervisor at the same time as the spring Faculty Reflection form.
      7. Goals for Professional Development and Growth (submitted year 3) – Professional Development Goals are intended to encourage faculty librarians to reflect upon their current career goals and what additional training they might need to pursue those goals. Faculty will set overall goals using the SMART goals format described in the Faculty Librarian Evaluation Manual for their professional development activities for the next three years at this time, recording them on the spring Faculty Librarian Reflection Form year 3. Changes in these plans during that time period should be documented in the Faculty Librarian Reflection Forms.
   2. In addition to the required evaluation components submitted by faculty librarians, the following information will also be collected:
      1. Faculty discipline information including grievances or student complaints
      2. Information on faculty absences
      3. List of Professional Development hours
      4. Prior year Summary Evaluation Forms for all returning faculty, as well as any active Performance Improvement Plans from prior evaluations
      5. Other departmentally required information
   3. Head librarians and the Dean of Library Services must complete and approve Faculty Librarian Evaluation Forms and Summary Evaluation Forms as described in the Faculty Librarian Evaluation manual for every faculty librarian in the department.
   4. For any faculty librarian who request a conference with the Head Librarian or Dean or who receive a “Does not meet faculty expectations” as an overall rating, the conference must be completed before the start of the next academic year and any comments are recorded on the Supplemental Conference form. If this conference is a result of the faculty librarian receiving a rating of “Does not meet faculty expectations,” the head librarian and faculty librarian (or Dean and head librarian) must develop a Performance Improvement Plan with a clearly specified timeline. Faculty librarians who disagree with the Performance Improvement Plan or the outcome of the conference may request a conference with the Dean.

In order to facilitate collegewide data collection and record retention, all Summary Evaluation Forms and associated conference notes and Performance Improvement Plans will be collected in an established centralized electronic location within the College.