Letter: Lies, damned lies and statistics on teaching

Monday, Nov. 7, 2005 | 8:39 a.m.

Administrators in the University and Community College System of Nevada gave us a new twist on the statistics of full-time versus part-time college instructor percentages. The Las Vegas Sun's Nov. 4 article reports that the 26 percent of Community College of Southern Nevada instructors who are full time are teaching half the courses. But as a fine part-time statistics instructor taught me: "Statistics can be twisted to distort reality."

As a part-time instructor at CCSN, I share the viewpoint of Ray Alden, UNLV executive vice president and provost, that required entry-level courses are predominately taught by part-time instructors. Those courses carry most of our system's student load and have the largest class sizes. UCCSN should provide us a truer picture by reporting how many students, not just courses, are taught by part-time instructors versus full-time instructors.

Bravo to the Sun for not angling this as a quality of education issue. Effective teachers abound, regardless of their rank. Apparently lacking the financial resources to reward superior performance from part-time instructors, perhaps UCCSN can get creative with their recognition? Part-time instructors hoping to land a full-time position should be credited for extracurricular research and service they do while positioning themselves to be a competitive applicant.

Departments should be accountable for showing that the most effective and experienced part-time instructors were the ones least likely to have been "bumped" when courses don't fill. We should get college credits for the courses we teach. And we should finally and uniformly get our biannually required classroom evaluations from tenured faculty, to show prospective employers proof of our commitment to education excellence.

Gary A. Reese

Las Vegas