Graduate Student Annual Review

All active graduate students must complete a Yearly Evaluation Form whether or not they intend to apply for TA support. This yearly graduate student evaluation will be used to eliminate multiple “calls” for assessment/review information. This single yearly evaluation tool will be used for a number of different applications including, but not limited to:

1. Graduate student annual performance reports,
2. TA applications and evaluations,
3. Graduate student travel awards,
4. Graduate student excellence awards,
5. Student assessments for summer teaching,
6. And miscellaneous funding opportunities.

The Graduate Student Yearly Evaluation Forms and supporting materials are due on February 10th of each year. Supporting materials included in the annual evaluation are for the past 12 month period before the form is due (February 10th through February 9th of the next year). For example for the Spring 2025 review date (February 10, 2024), you would be asked to include all activities (publications, presentations, awards, honors, etc.) that you have received or completed during the past year from February 10, 2024 through February 9, 2025. A formal call will be sent out by the Department for Graduate Student Annual Reviews. This call will include a letter describing the review and the review itself.

The Graduate Student Yearly Evaluation is a cumulative assessment tool that takes your previous annual review scores and combines it with your most recent annual review score. This allows graduate student performance to be “smoothed” over a several year period and provides a more accurate assessment of student performance relative to a single year performance. However, student performance is also assessed based upon the number of semesters the student has been enrolled in a particular degree program. For instance, a student will likely have more publications and other performance points the longer s/he has been in a degree program. As such, longtime graduate students will tend to have an advantage over more recent graduate students. To counterbalance this effect our assessment tool divides performance scores by the number of semesters a student has been within his or her degree program.

The Graduate Student Yearly Evaluation Form only counts items once. For instance, if a graduate student was given credit for a paper after it was accepted for publication (a.k.a. in press), credit for the same publication will not be given when the paper actually appears in the journal or book.

All items listed on Graduate Student Yearly Evaluation Form should be for the twelve month period from February 10 through February 9. All items listed should be supported with a copy of the publications or in the case of an “in press” publication a letter from the editor or publisher stating the paper has been accepted for publication. Do not include papers that have been submitted or in review or in preparation. Such papers will not count toward student yearly assessment.

The list of criteria below document and discuss the kinds of materials along with their values that should be included in the Graduate Student Yearly Evaluation Form.

Graduate Student Assessment Criteria

There are 19 fields of information for our student yearly assessment form. These fields are compressed into three categories (Progress, Quality, and Promise). Those three categories are standardized and weighted to account for 20%, 40%, and 40% respectively, and summed. The greatest summed value is ranked highest. Each of the fields is explained below. Students are required to complete field 1 and 10-20 below.

• ID: Students should identify if they are interested in a teaching assistantship and complete the fields for date, ID number, and name.
• Current degree program (office will complete).
• Semester of entry into program (office will complete).
• Number of semesters completed for current degree, (office will complete).
• GPA: Grade point average since entering WSU graduate program (cumulative for both MA and PhD), (office will complete).
• Program: Program filed at time of application? 1=yes, 0=no, (office will complete).
• GRE: Average GRE prior to entering graduate program (for information only), (office will complete if GRE was submitted).
• Prelim: Successful completion of Preliminary Examinations 2=yes, 0-no, (office will complete).
• TA: Number of semesters at WSU during which the student has had TA or departmental RA (not including RA’s funded by grants) (office will complete).
• Grant: Successful grant application(s) generally 1 per external, 0.5 per internal. (Must be approved by time of application), depending on size and prominence. Minor grant examples: GPSA Travel Grant, .25; GPSA Registration Grant, .1.
• Publication: Professional publications (in press or in print) during the review period. Each publication is scaled from 3.0-0.5 and is divided by the number of authors if the student is not the first author. For instance, a non-peer reviewed report with the student as the second of two authors might be scored as 0.5/2=0.25. In Sp 2014 we scored as follows: sole-authored book, 3; edited volume, 2.5; first-tier journal article, 2; second-tier journal article, 1.5; edited volume chapter, 1.5, author or editor of substantial published or unpublished report; 1; author of chapter in published or unpublished report, .5; minor report, .25; book review, .25.
• Podium: Oral paper(s) presentation at professional meeting(s) during the review period. Each paper is valued 0.5 and is divided by the number of authors if student is not the first author. For instance, a paper presented at AAA annual meeting with the student as the second of two authors might be scored as 0.5/2=0.25. In the past we scored as follows: formal papers at inter/national venue, .5; major invited lecture, .5; formal papers at regional/local venues, .25; other invited lectures/presentations/seminars, .25; see below for WSU presentations.
• Poster: Poster presentation at professional meeting(s) beginning from the calendar year before entering current degree program and including poster presentations formally accepted through the review period. Each poster is valued 0.5 or .25, depending on scope of meeting (see above), divided by the number of authors if student is not first author. For instance, a poster presented at AAA annual meeting with the student as the second of four authors might be scored as 0.5/4=0.125.
• Chair: Other forms of meeting participation (e.g., session organizer, chair, and discussant) during the review period. Each event is valued 0.5 or .25, depending on scope and prominence.
• Colloquium: WSU Departmental/university presentation (colloquium papers, Center and Institution presentation, etc.) completed during the review period. Each event is scaled from 0.25 to 0.1 and is divided by the number of authors if student is not the first author. Examples: Anth. Dept. colloquium, .25; WSU Center for Integrated Biotechnology .25; etc. (Note: informal presentations such as brown bag talks, class lectures, and roundtable discussions are not given points under these criteria.)
• Service: Department or University service at WSU completed during the review period. Each event is scaled from 0.25 to 0.1. Examples: Faculty Search Committee member, .25; Grad rep to Faculty meetings, .25; Senator to GPSA, .25; Lipe Visiting Scholar Committee, .25; etc.
• Field, Laboratory, Archival: Research completed during the review period. Student must identify exact dates of field or laboratory research. This field is scaled from 1.2 to 0.1 depending upon venue of work and length of time. Does not include research associated with class assignments. The intent of this category is to reward research related to scholarly development of the graduate student as a professional anthropologist. Some examples include a 12-month field season collecting PhD related ethnographic data (1.2 pts); 3-month archaeological summer field project gaining experience to become a practicing archaeologist (0.3 pts); 2-month visit to the Smithsonian Institution or other museum or facility to collect archival data for a research paper (0.2 pts).
• Honors: Scholarships, medals, etc. awarded since entry into current WSU graduate degree program (0.5 to 0.25 per award). Examples: AAA student paper award .5, Daugherty RA, McNair, Foley, .5; Boeing, Daugherty Scholarship, .25.
• Progress: Describe in your own words, your progress toward degree completion. (Not included in quantitative ranking).

The above fields are used to calculate a student’s yearly evaluation. The calculation occurs by deriving a score for Progress, Promise, and Quality.

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Defining Progress, Promise, and Quality

Progress

Progress represents progress towards completion of degree scaled by number of semesters in current degree program. This includes the field of Prelim and Program (Prelim + Program divided by the number of semesters).

Promise

Promise includes intellectual and professional promise scaled by number of semesters in degree program. (Grant + Publication + Podium + Poster + Chair + Service + Honors + Colloquium + Fieldwork divided by the number of semesters).

Quality

Quality is simply the student GPA at WSU.

Weighted Sum

Weighted Sum is the sum of Standardized scores (values converted to z scores) for Progress, Quality, Promise adjusted to relative importance. Progress = 20%, Quality (=GPA) = 40%, Promise = 40%.

Rank

Rank: of students is based upon weighted sum.