If it was a research I university, a Prof with a great research/publication record…especially those who can draw in huge research grants can get away with mediocre/poor teaching come evaluation/promotion time. Heard of some examples from HS alums/friends who attended such institutions for undergrad and had a few examples for courses I sat in on/audited during summers during/after undergrad.
However, one can’t get away with this nearly as much with teaching centered institutions such as teaching centered universities or LACs.
With teaching centered institutions, f your teaching evaluations are mediocre…you’re not only unlikely to get tenure…sometimes you may not even be hired in the first place as was the case of a few prospective Profs being evaluated by a hiring committee which included a couple of student representatives.
One whom I knew from a few classes said there were a few candidates they all unanimously agreed were such poor teachers in the classroom that they shouldn’t hire them at all…or felt a candidate’s demonstrated attitude towards teaching undergrads meant he/she was better suited for a research I institution rather than LACs like ours.
Not only ratemyprofessor, but other student evaluation websites/evaluations as well.
One evaluation of a Prof at an elite U accused a Prof of not being understandable “having a strong foreign accent”. Interesting as I’ve actually met her in person and know for a fact she doesn’t have a foreign accent of any kind which makes sense considering she’s an American born and raised in the US like most native-born Americans.
Makes one wonder…especially considering the only factor which could have prompted such a post was that she was Asian-American and thus “looked foreign” to the student who wrote that erroneous evaluation on the Us internal Prof/course evaluation site.