A recent study found that a third of students “stretched the truth” on anonymous teacher evaluations.  A full 20% said they lied on the comments section of the evaluations.  These lies went both ways: to help professors they liked and to hurt professors they didn’t like.  Although a larger percentage of students reportedly lied about professors they disliked.

This study seemed to focus on undergraduates, but it did make me wonder what the results would be in law schools.  Do law students have a sense of professional ethics to the point where they would have different rates of dishonesty on these evaluations? Or would they simply know better than to answer survey questions honestly and admit that they lied?

In the end I guess the most surprising thing is why students felt the need to lie.  If a professor is good, why can’t they just say what is so good about them, and the same with the reverse?  And, of course, these results call into question how much weight such evaluations should be given in promotion and tenure processes.  

To read more about the study see: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20101213/NEWS02/12130319/1001/NEWS/Students-stretch-truth-on-teacher-evaluations-UNI-professor-s-study-finds

 Thank you to InsideHigherEd.com for reporting this story.