Student evaluations of instructors

Tests are a way of getting students to work a bit harder than they otherwise might.  Tests may or may not measure anything about what the student has accomplished in the course. Similarly, student evaluations of instructors are a way to make instructors work harder than they otherwise might.  Student evaluations may or may not measure much about what the instructor accomplished in the course s/he taught. (And there may be better ways to both motivate and evaluate the instructor. see my presentation in Bulletin of the American Physical Society, vol. 40, pg. 968, 1995)