Calculation of Approval Ratings

Guidelines for Academic Files

With CAPE the question "Do you recommend this instructor," is asked and students are given the option to answer "Yes" or "No", giving a percentage approval rating. Evaluation Reports are, in many cases, asking the question "What is your overall rating of this instructor?" Students are given the option to rate the instructor from Poor to Excellent. In order to calculate an approval rating when the question is asked this way, the Jacob School will use a weighted average.

Calculation of the weighted average is as follows:

The value of each response is as follows

Excellent= 5 points

Above Average= 4 points

Average= 3 points

Below Average= 2 points

Poor= 1 point

The number of individuals responding will be multiplied by the value of their response to get the total point value. For example, if 3 students respond "Excellent", 1 responds "Above Average", and 1 responds "Average" you would calculate the following total point value:

3 x 5 =15

1 x 4 =4

1 x 3 =3


22 total points

Then the total possible number of points is obtained by multiplying by the total number of responding students by 5. In this case there are 5 responses.

5 x 5 = 25 Total Points

Then the total point value is divided by the total possible number of points to obtain the approval rating:

22 / 25 = .88 or 88% weighted approval rating.