A MODEL FOR THE EVALUATION AND REWARD OF TEACHING IN AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

In 1986, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, issued its first call for innovative approaches to solve the problem of reward for teaching in American universities. The FIPSE Board of Directors and staff recognized that the greatest disparity in the postsecondary reward system occurred in research-oriented universities where research garnered more rewards than teaching. They concluded that if teaching in American universities was going to improve, the reward structures in higher education needed to change. This article describes a plan designed to evaluate and reward teaching in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication (AgLEC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL). It begins with background information about the FIPSE-sponsored project out of which the evaluation and reward plan grew, traces the development of the AgLEC plan, describes each component of the plan, and assesses the effectiveness of the plan after three years in place