Development of a Teaching Load Policy. AIR 1992 Annual Forum Paper / Martha L. Casey and Bruce D. Beck.

This paper describes the analysis and policy development involved in formulating a University of Wisconsin-Madison teaching load policy. The paper presents a preliminary teaching load policy developed in 1991 and describes its review and integration into ongoing strategic planning and budget allocation processes. Current teaching load patterns are analyzed to provide a method of testing the policy through the identification of current norms. Results are examined in terms of load distribution between fall and spring semesters, by professorial rank, by gender and ethnic heritage, by department, and by discipline area. Results indicated that the mean annual teaching load for the full-time instructional faculty was 3.6 primary-range group instruction sections, that the three professorial ranks had similar teaching load distributions, that men and women had similar teaching load distributions, that white and minority faculty members had similar teaching loads, and that teaching load varied between departments and discipline areas. Analysis suggests possible sources of variation in certain types of section loads, and the paper explains how teaching load measures are being incorporated into the budget allocation process. (JB)

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