Are There Instructional Differences Between Fulltime and Parttime Faculty?

Using data from 8 academic departments and 361 courses taught during a semester, I examined differences between fulltime and parttime faculty in the areas of general demographic variables, student evaluation of teaching outcomes, and the distribution of grades earned. I expected fulltime faculty to exhibit higher teaching evaluations and less lenient grade distributions, yet neither hypothesis was supported. However, substantial differences exist in the support mechanisms provided to parttime and fulltime faculty. These results are discussed in the context of a growing national reliance on parttime faculty, and the potential implications of this trend. Differences Between Fulltime and Parttime Instructional Faculty It is undeniable that in the United States, higher education’s reliance on adjunct/parttime faculty is growing. In examining the data from the National Center for Education Statistics (2005), in 1992 parttime faculty comprised 41.7% of the instructional faculty at degree-granting institutions; by 2003, 43.7% of the instructional faculty were parttime faculty. Not only are the ranks of parttime faculty growing larger (in proportion to all faculty ranks), but parttime faculty increases are occurring at an accelerated rate. From 1992 to 2003, there was a 29.2% increase in the number of fulltime faculty, but during the same time period, there was a 40.6% increase in the number of parttime faculty. My particular interest in this topic addresses pedagogical (e.g., grade distributions) and performance issues (e.g., student evaluations of teaching) of fulltime and parttime faculty. Previous researchers address the areas in which fulltime and parttime faculty differ. For instance, Jaschik (2006) reported on that at community colleges, when graduation and completion rates are examined, institutions with higher rates of fulltime faculty members also have higher completion rates as compared to community colleges with lower rates of fulltime faculty members. In a study of the professional attitudes of community college faculty, Rifkin (1998) found that, compared to fulltime faculty, parttime faculty exhibit (a) less involvement in curriculum, instruction, and scholarship, (b) less autonomy from the institution, and (c) appear less responsible for institutional behavior (a variable that Rifkin refers to as integrity). In a comparison of fulltime and parttime community college faculty, Hellman (1998) found no significant differences between the groups on student evaluation outcomes. Only one evaluative item even approached a significant difference, with fulltime faculty scoring higher on instructor availability outside of class compared to parttime faculty. However, given the inherent differences between community colleges and 4-year institutions, it is difficult to generalize these results to other types of educational institutions. Some work does exist concerning differences between fulltime and parttime faculty on student evaluations of teaching. Ghaffari-Samai, Davis, and De Filippis (1994) studied the differences between fulltime and parttime faculty over two years with respect to grading practices, learning outcomes as related to writing skills, and student ratings of teaching effectiveness. The only difference reported by Ghaffari-Samai et al. was that in one of the years studied, parttime faculty assigned a greater proportion of higher grades (specifically, As and Bs) than fulltime faculty. In a comparison of off-campus parttime faculty compared to on-campus fulltime faculty, Vitello, Newmyer, and Stivers (1985) found that although parttime faculty were rated significantly lower than fulltime faculty, parttime