Harvard Survey: Auburn Among Nations Best Places To Teach!

[Imhotep]

HARVARD SURVEY SHOWS NEW FACULTY RATE AU AMONG NATION’S BEST PLACES TO TEACH

AUBURN - In a Harvard University-based survey, Auburn University’s tenure-track junior faculty have rated AU as one of the nation’s best places to teach.

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education asked new faculty at 31 doctoral universities how they felt about their careers, colleagues and institutional support.

Tenure-track junior faculty typically have been at an institution for seven years or less. AU’s tenure-track junior faculty gave their institution especially high marks for collegiality, policy effectiveness, tenure expectations and clarity and the institutional environment for work and family. Their ratings placed Auburn among the top four institutions in each category.

In addition to the overall picture of satisfaction levels of tenure-track junior faculty, the survey developed detailed data on a variety of questions, examined differences in response by gender and race and differences between expectations and reality encountered by faculty at each institution.

Those responses were also compared to the responses from faculty at five other institutions: Clemson, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and North Carolina State. On most survey items, Auburn’s rating was significantly higher than the average for these five peers.

AU Provost John Heilman said Auburn joined the higher education collaborative at Harvard to identify the needs of junior faculty. He noted that AU has raised faculty salaries to the regional average and has taken a number of initiatives, such as establishing the nationally prominent Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, to help new faculty improve their skills and stay on track toward tenure.

“We are committed to making sure that Auburn is a great academic environment for our faculty as well as our students,” said Heilman. “The COACHE survey shows us that Auburn is a national
leader in making that commitment a reality for tenure-track junior faculty.”

Heilman added that the positives will not lessen the university’s commitment to further improving conditions for junior faculty. “We plan to use the COACHE survey results to identify policies, practices and issues where we can further improve the working and teaching environment at Auburn.”

Researchers for COACHE conducted the survey between October 2005 and January 2006 with faculty hired before summer 2005 who were working toward tenure. The 67 percent response rate for Auburn faculty was significantly higher than the overall response rate of 58 percent. Drew Clark, executive director of institutional research and analysis at Auburn, said the response rates for AU and overall were very strong indicators that the survey produced an accurate reflection of junior faculty attitudes.

Auburn was the only institution in Alabama to participate in the COACHE survey. Among participating universities across the South besides Clemson and North Carolina State, the collaborative includes the University of North Carolina System, Duke, Memphis, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and Texas Tech. Nationally, other major participants include Notre Dame, the California State University System and flagship universities in Washington, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Connecticut, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/AllSeeingEye11/22anew-1.gif

[Cianne]

Only 31? That doesn't lead to a very good statistical survey overall. It is good that the teachers love their jobs though. That doesn't seem to be the case at a lot of schools.

[Imhotep]

Only 31? That doesn't lead to a very good statistical survey overall. It is good that the teachers love their jobs though. That doesn't seem to be the case at a lot of schools.

Auburn was the only institution in Alabama to participate in the COACHE survey. Among participating universities across the South besides Clemson and North Carolina State, the collaborative includes the University of North Carolina System, Duke, Memphis, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and Texas Tech. Nationally, other major participants include Notre Dame, the California State University System and flagship universities in Washington, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Connecticut, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.


Looks like the Mississippi schools decided to stay far away from this survey....

Wise choice....

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/AllSeeingEye11/jerry_laugh.jpg

[gatorunvrsty]

HARVARD SURVEY SHOWS NEW FACULTY RATE AU AMONG NATION’S BEST PLACES TO TEACH

AUBURN - In a Harvard University-based survey, Auburn University’s tenure-track junior faculty have rated AU as one of the nation’s best places to teach.

The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education asked new faculty at 31 doctoral universities how they felt about their careers, colleagues and institutional support.

Tenure-track junior faculty typically have been at an institution for seven years or less. AU’s tenure-track junior faculty gave their institution especially high marks for collegiality, policy effectiveness, tenure expectations and clarity and the institutional environment for work and family. Their ratings placed Auburn among the top four institutions in each category.

In addition to the overall picture of satisfaction levels of tenure-track junior faculty, the survey developed detailed data on a variety of questions, examined differences in response by gender and race and differences between expectations and reality encountered by faculty at each institution.

Those responses were also compared to the responses from faculty at five other institutions: Clemson, Iowa State, Kansas State, Texas Tech and North Carolina State. On most survey items, Auburn’s rating was significantly higher than the average for these five peers.

AU Provost John Heilman said Auburn joined the higher education collaborative at Harvard to identify the needs of junior faculty. He noted that AU has raised faculty salaries to the regional average and has taken a number of initiatives, such as establishing the nationally prominent Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, to help new faculty improve their skills and stay on track toward tenure.

“We are committed to making sure that Auburn is a great academic environment for our faculty as well as our students,” said Heilman. “The COACHE survey shows us that Auburn is a national
leader in making that commitment a reality for tenure-track junior faculty.”

Heilman added that the positives will not lessen the university’s commitment to further improving conditions for junior faculty. “We plan to use the COACHE survey results to identify policies, practices and issues where we can further improve the working and teaching environment at Auburn.”

Researchers for COACHE conducted the survey between October 2005 and January 2006 with faculty hired before summer 2005 who were working toward tenure. The 67 percent response rate for Auburn faculty was significantly higher than the overall response rate of 58 percent. Drew Clark, executive director of institutional research and analysis at Auburn, said the response rates for AU and overall were very strong indicators that the survey produced an accurate reflection of junior faculty attitudes.

Auburn was the only institution in Alabama to participate in the COACHE survey. Among participating universities across the South besides Clemson and North Carolina State, the collaborative includes the University of North Carolina System, Duke, Memphis, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Tennessee and Texas Tech. Nationally, other major participants include Notre Dame, the California State University System and flagship universities in Washington, North Dakota, Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Connecticut, Ohio, Minnesota and Michigan.

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/AllSeeingEye11/22anew-1.gif
Might want to check out thread : AU in trouble again. Appears it's a great place to teach, as long as you don't mind being unethical. What's a little grade-fixing for athletes, right?

[CrimsonTide12xs]

Grasping at straws...

[Imhotep]

Grasping at straws...

U.S. NEWS RANKS AUBURN AMONG TOP 50 PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES FOR 14th CONSECUTIVE YEAR

AUBURN - Auburn University is ranked 39th among public universities nationwide, according to an annual survey released by U.S. News & World Report today.|

The ranking marks the 14th consecutive year the magazine has ranked AU among the nation’s top 50 public universities.

“We’re pleased that we have again been ranked among the top 50 public universities in the country,” said interim AU President Ed Richardson. “When you look at the data, what stands out about this university is our rising academic reputation and programs, including our College of Engineering, which performed exceptionally well in this survey. We are attracting outstanding freshmen and the value-added ranking, among the region’s best, shows we are providing them with meaningful academic opportunities when they arrive on campus.

“As always, the ranking reflects hard work by the faculty, staff, administration and students and the commitment of the Board of Trustees.”

Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering was ranked 60th nationally overall and 35th among public universities that offer doctoral programs in engineering. Last year, the College ranked 67th among all engineering programs and 40th among such programs at public universities.
“Moving ahead in these rankings is central to our strategic planning as we position the college to compete for the best students to learn in an environment that joins a world-class faculty with state-of-the-art facilities that are now coming on line with the construction of the Shelby Center for Engineering Technology,” said AU Engineering Dean Larry Benefield. “I appreciate the support we have received from the university, our alumni, and industrial partners. Our faculty has in particular made the kind of effort needed to bring us to the next level through a renewed focus on our outreach and research efforts while maintaining our core competencies in undergraduate instruction. This is made more remarkable in the face of intense competition from competing engineering programs throughout the nation.”

The newsstand book, America’s Best Colleges, which contains the U.S. News college rankings, may be ordered from www.usnews.com and will be shipped to bookstores today.

To establish its rankings U.S. News categorizes colleges and universities primarily by mission and, in some cases, region. The magazine then gathers data from each on up to 15 indicators of academic excellence, assigning each factor a weight that reflects the magazine’s judgment about how much each measure matters.

The indicators the magazine staff uses to capture academic quality fall into seven categories: academic reputation among its peers, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and (for national universities and liberal arts colleges) the graduation rate performance, or the difference between the proportion of students expected to graduate and the proportion who actually do.

Auburn University is a preeminent land-grant and comprehensive research institution with more than 23,000 students and 6,500 faculty and staff. Ranked among the top 50 public universities nationally, Auburn is Alabama’s largest educational institution, offering more than 230 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs.

BTW, where is Alabammer?

http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q259/AllSeeingEye11/jerry_laugh.jpg

[Cianne]

Just because the Mississippi schools did not participate does not mean that they were invited and elected not to. That is what makes the survey non-dispositive of the actuality. Besides, regardless of participation, there is still a needed requirement of schools to participate out of those invited in order to make a survey statistically allowed. 31 is not going to meet that requirement no matter how you slice it.

[BamaDude06]

BTW, where is Alabammer?



Tied with Auburn at 39th.

[AUChamps]

Tied with Auburn at 39th.
Good to see you're back up. Ya'll had a couple years where you were down in the mid 40s.

[CrimsonTide12xs]

I hope for the sake of other Barner Grads on here, you are not the kind of students AU is turning out.

[gatorunvrsty]

Thirty-ninth out of fifty. I guess it all depends on how one looks at it. By the way, where'd Florida end up and which school was tops in the SEC?

[BamaDude06]

Thirty-ninth out of fifty. I guess it all depends on how one looks at it. By the way, where'd Florida end up and which school was tops in the SEC?
Don't know about Florida, but Tennessee was also tied at 39th. All good considering there are hundreds of public universities in the US.

[AUChamps]

Don't know about Florida, but Tennessee was also tied at 39th. All good considering there are hundreds of public universities in the US.
I'd expect Florida to be on up there since they're one of the best Public Schools in the SEC.

[gatorunvrsty]

Just teasing y'all. UF was 13th and the highest ranked in the SEC.

[AUChamps]

Just teasing y'all. UF was 13th and the highest ranked in the SEC.
Higher then Vandy?

[WallyGoat]

Higher then Vandy?

Is this survey only among public schools? If so, the Gators are probably the highest ranked. Vandy, as we all know is a private institution.

[BamaDude06]

Is this survey only among public schools? If so, the Gators are probably the highest ranked. Vandy, as we all know is a private institution.
Public only.

[AUChamps]

Is this survey only among public schools? If so, the Gators are probably the highest ranked. Vandy, as we all know is a private institution.
It's for all National Universities:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

18. Vanderbilt University(TN)
47. University of Florida *
60. University of Georgia *
88. University of Tennessee *
88. University of Alabama *
88. Auburn University(AL) *
112. University of Kentucky *
112. Univ. of South Carolina—Columbia *

Sorry LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State; you make the SEC West look bad. All 6 of the SEC East schools are represented but there's just Auburn and Alabama that are pulling the weight of the West. What gives?

[WallyGoat]

It's for all National Universities:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

18. Vanderbilt University(TN)
47. University of Florida *
60. University of Georgia *
88. University of Tennessee *
88. University of Alabama *
88. Auburn University(AL) *
112. University of Kentucky *
112. Univ. of South Carolina—Columbia *

Sorry LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State; you make the SEC West look bad. All 6 of the SEC East schools are represented but there's just Auburn and Alabama that are pulling the weight of the West. What gives?

I see now.....

[gatorunvrsty]

That's among public universities. Top national universities (public & private) have Vandy ranked 18th. That's pretty damn high. Kudos to Vandy. UF comes in at 47th. Auburn, Alabama, and Tennessee are at 88th. UGA is 60th. Here you go. http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/brief/t1natudoc_brief.php

[Cianne]

Sorry LSU, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State; you make the SEC West look bad. All 6 of the SEC East schools are represented but there's just Auburn and Alabama that are pulling the weight of the West. What gives?

Dark times for the general campus populace. Atleast we have more Rhodes scholars than the rest of the West though. Too many brains at the bottom.

[AUChamps]

Dark times for the general campus populace. Atleast we have more Rhodes scholars than the rest of the West though. Too many brains at the bottom.
See I'd expect that in Starkville but I thought Oxford was supposedly this shining light of optimism in the darkness that is Mississippi(and that's no offense to the Gulf Coast or the Memphis Suburban counties, but it is a complete shot at everywhere in the 601 Area Code and the majority of the 662 Area Code).

[BamaDude06]

Dark times for the general campus populace. Atleast we have more Rhodes scholars than the rest of the West though. Too many brains at the bottom.
Do you have as many student's on USA Today's Academic team? I don't think so ;)

...and I'm so tired of all the hype UA puts out over that.

[Cianne]

Well, just because a school isn't on the US and News list does not automatically make them "bad." Picking apart their criteria, I can give reasons as to why the Mississippi schools won't make the list.

% of class with X students - The overall Mississippi education budget is horrible. Teachers cannot get paid enough to retain their services here and thus they live for greener pastures in other states. Fewer teachers = classes with more students crammed in. This leads to the next criterion.

% of faculty who are full time - Because the state can't keep the full-time doctorate professors in the state, they resort to travelling professors who all don't speak English and then cram 80 students in a class.

Average SAT/ACT scores - You can chalk this one up to the historically black schools and the horrendous education at the elementary and secondary levels. The state, by law, requires that a 16 the absolute score that is required for entry. The big three schools cannot increase the requirement to allow for a more challenging entry because it has to be kept in par with Jackson State, Alcorn State, etc.

Alumni Giving - Ole Miss should actually be pretty high if this is done per capita. We have the highest endowment per student next to Vanderbilt in the SEC.

[AUChamps]

So the fact that most white ppl go to Private Academies in Mississippi while most of the Black student population ends up in the broken Public Schools isn't strictly a racial issue nowadays?

Making a point, Mississippi's K-12 woes are a result of segregation and the fact that your state can't seem to reform itself properly at the K-12 level except for a few choice counties.

[Cianne]

Most while people don't go to private academies. Such a statement like that is abhorrently false. Even the largest academy schools, Jackson Academy and Jackson Prep, rank around 3A in terms of attendance compared to public schools. In fact, Northwest Rankin, a 5A school down the road from Jackson Prep, probably has more more white kids than Jackson Prep does. There is also a black private school, CM&I, and no I don't know where it is. It joined the MPSA after I had graduated from Jackson Prep.

Segregation is an issue that is so out of whack it's bonkers. In the Jackson metro area, you have five private schools (Jackson Prep, Jackson Academy, Hillcrest Christian, University Christian, and Madison-Ridgeland Academy). Prep, UCS, and MRA are in the suburbs while JA is in the "white" part of Jackson. Hillcrest is in the blackest part of Jackson. Students at Prep and UCS, while the schoolds are outside of the the Jackson Public Shool system, generally come from within the district. This means that their property taxes get apportioned into the city budget. Unfortunately, there are not even "rich white folk" living within Jackson to maintain the public school system there so you have educational abhorrences such as Provine, Lanier, Callaway, etc that cannot receive money for books, school expansion, etc. This trickles down to the elementary schools as well. Meanwhile, the public schools in the other districts flourish with money. The Jackson City Council is incompetent to the nth degree, and the mayor doesn't know the city from a whole in the ground.

NOW, this little diatribe into the Jackson Public School system is a look at how the rest of the state must fair. If the largest city in the state can't maintain the public schools, take a guess at what it must be like in the delta where a good chunk of the population is below the poverty limit. Now take into consideration what I said about the education budget being completely non-existant and there is virtually no state money that can be afforded to maintain and upkeep.

While segregation played and plays a role now, there is just no money at the city or the state levels to make necessary improvements in the education system. Why this is true is a completely separate discussion that I am ill-qualified to discuss, heh.

[uscrebel]

Reading pissing matches between Mississippi and Alabama about the quality of educational institutions is rather like readying about France arguing with Italy about who has the best army.

:cool: :cool:

[Cianne]

Reading pissing matches between Mississippi and Alabama about the quality of educational institutions is rather like readying about France arguing with Italy about who has the best army.

:cool: :cool:

Were private schools even around when you were here old man? :)

[uscrebel]

Were private schools even around when you were here old man? :)

So-called Christian academies began springing up throughout the South about the time that I was in high school and would have been more accurately called segregation academies. They were, and generally continue to be, academically substandard. The exceptions to this rule were those that eventually admitted African-American students or those that were truly parochial...largely Roman Catholic and Episcopal schools.

I graduated proudly from the University of Mississippi and had the advantage of being at a small university with a dedicated faculty. I taught in the University System in Alabama (Montevallo) and still have many friends on the faculties of UAB, UAT, AU, and AUM. Several of whom I still collaborate with on various research projects.

As an administrator in the UC system, I can tell you that the vast majority of southern universities are second tier, no matter what the phony US NEWS surveys say. A better measure of academic performance would be ranking by AAUP or the WHO rankings compiled by Shanghai University (by the way, in the WHO rankings, which is international in scope, only UFL makes it into the top 100). The major problem with the US News rankings is their reliance on peer ratings from untrained raters who compete in the same market place. It is widely known that secretaries and graduate assistants have been allowed to complete the "common data set" evaluations of other institutions and often they have not ever set foot on the campus. These peer evaluations account for 25% of the score. In a large system like the UC, the advantage goes to system campuses as sister institutions rate one another higher and competitors from smaller systems (Nevada, Oregon, Arizona) lower.

As much as I hate to say this, likely only Florida and Vanderbilt in the SEC have the academic chops to compete with the big boys. Georgia and Tennessee come close, but ultimately they are "also ran" schools. Each of the institutions in the SEC has one or two academic strengths of which they can be proud, but supporting these strengths often comes at the expense of the rest of the academic program and mission.

Hell, I graduated from lowly Ole Miss and somehow managed to get a Rockefeller Fellowship and ultimately graduated from USCal, which ranks 50th in the world according to WHO and 27th in the US according to the fools at US News. My point is that Ole Miss, Alabama, Auburn, etc. all create, develop, and sustain scholars at every level. Yale is probably a great place, but I'd poke my own eyes out before I would every yell "Go, Eli's!!"

[Cianne]

Well I believe that answered my question and then some.

[WallyGoat]

This has nothing to do with anything, but if I am not mistaken, Morgan Freeman was a UM alumn. He's quite an accomplished person in acting and such. UM is a university. They have prestige like most universities, they have loads of scholars as well. It's not like they are a fledgling high school with poor facilities and even poorer students.

[gatorunvrsty]

[As an administrator in the UC system, I can tell you that the vast majority of southern universities are second tier, no matter what the phony US NEWS surveys say. A better measure of academic performance would be ranking by AAUP or the WHO rankings compiled by Shanghai University (by the way, in the WHO rankings, which is international in scope, only UFL makes it into the top 100). The major problem with the US News rankings is their reliance on peer ratings from untrained raters who compete in the same market place. It is widely known that secretaries and graduate assistants have been allowed to complete the "common data set" evaluations of other institutions and often they have not ever set foot on the campus. These peer evaluations account for 25% of the score. In a large system like the UC, the advantage goes to system campuses as sister institutions rate one another higher and competitors from smaller systems (Nevada, Oregon, Arizona) lower.

As much as I hate to say this, likely only Florida and Vanderbilt in the SEC have the academic chops to compete with the big boys. Georgia and Tennessee come close, but ultimately they are "also ran" schools. Each of the institutions in the SEC has one or two academic strengths of which they can be proud, but supporting these strengths often comes at the expense of the rest of the academic program and mission.

How refreshing!!! Always like getting some accurate, useful information from someone obviously "in the know". :not_worth

[nooneLT]

actually i'm kinda surprised tennessee made it. i guess i don't really keep track of it anymore after graduating but there was a few years i think where tennessee was not on the list but lsu was. but maybe i'm wrong, who knows :/