Tenure & Promotion Policy - Sam Fox School - Washington ...

A. Guidelines for Tenure and for Promotion to Associate Professor
The documentation enumerated below for evaluating performance in teaching, creative activity/
research, and service are intended to serve as guides, not to set boundaries or to exclude
other areas of performance that may be considered. Where quantity is indicated, the numbers
should serve as guidelines, not mandates. The tenured faculty has the discretion to make
judgments about depth and quality of work. In addition to the documentation to be included
as evidence of performance in each of the categories listed, letters of recommendation are
required for all reviews for appointment; external letters of evaluation are required for all reviews
for tenure, and promotion.
1. Teaching
Teaching must be of the highest quality, as measured by the work of the candidate’s students,
curriculum, syllabi, and the contributions of his or her teaching to the intellectual life of the
school and the University. While highly effective teaching is essential to achieve tenure, it is
not alone sufficient without evidence of creative work/research and service of the highest
quality.
Each faculty member of the school must be an excellent teacher. He or she must clearly
document and demonstrate the active contributions to the program area that he or she is
responsible for, including the following:
• The ability to foster knowledge and mastery of fundamental technical and conceptual skills;
• Command of the subject while remaining current with relevant changes in the field;
• The ability to awaken interest and curiosity in beginning students and to stimulate advanced
students to original and independent creative work;
• The ability to organize material and to present it clearly and effectively;
• Encouragement of individual freedom of thought and creative expression and effectiveness
in promoting an open learning environment that is encouraging to all students; and
• Participation in the general guidance and mentoring of students.
Evidence of teaching effectiveness must include the following:
• Course plans and syllabi, with clearly stated course objectives, expectations, and related
teaching materials;
• Peer evaluations based on class visitations by faculty members knowledgeable in the
candidate’s field or through public lectures given by the candidate; and
• Student evaluations of teaching.
iii. criteria for tenure and promotion decisions
Evidence of teaching effectiveness may also include the following:
• Honors or special recognitions for teaching accomplishments; and
• Evaluations of graduates who have achieved notable professional success.
Candidates whose early record reflects difficulty in teaching must document the steps that
they have taken to address these problems, and the record must reflect, through student
evaluations, peer evaluations, and other means, that significant improvement has occurred.
policy on faculty appointment, retention, tenure, and promotion 6
III. Criteria for Tenure
and Promotion
Decisions