The steps leading to the development of a Student Rating Form, an instrument for use by faculty in systematically describing college students, are outlined in this first of a series of reports concerned with faculty characterizations of students. The treatment is primarily historical, providing a basis for subsequent technical reports of analyses of faculty definition of desirable student traits. Data presented include a thematic analysis of free verbal descriptions by faculty of students, and the results of a factor analysis (suggesting 16 factors) of variables contributed by an early version of the Student Rating Form.
