We present evidence for the validity of scores on a published instrument for student evaluations of teaching performance. We replicated the instrument's factor structure very closely, yielding five factors virtually identical to those of a previous study that used two different populations. For construct validation, we developed a preliminary theoretical model that predicts different effects of three sets of variables on student ratings of teachers. Student expectations about teachers had noteworthy effects on all dimensions of teaching effectiveness. Class size and teacher experience had much weaker effects on the ratings.
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