Should Students Grade Teachers?

 Students should be able to grade their teachers. There are many reasons why they should. When grading teachers, it could give them advice on what they can fix. Also, it gets the students used to grading them because in college, students often rate their professors for other students to see. Lastly, students can tell biased information about the teachers. 

 At the college level, students can grade their professors, so some people think high schoolers should be able too. When students give their teachers advice on how to better reach them, it could help the students improve their learning skills. On the occasion that students put in so much effort and then a teacher doesn’t, it can negatively affect the student’s grades. For example, when a student doesn’t do their best on a quiz, they might need help, and they might not always get the help they need. The students feel down because they had tried their best and they failed.  So, teachers should be graded by students so we all can become better learners and teachers.  

In an article in 2013, it said that New Jersey was having a debate about evaluating their teachers based on how the students perform.  Most classes at BHS, when students need help, they usually would just go ask for help from the teachers. But when they ask, they might just not explain it the best, so the students don’t understand it. An app like that would be beneficial. This could lead to many improvements in the teachers’ teaching. When the students get the help they need, they will be happy. Some teachers might not even know about ratemyprofessor.com, but you just rate how the teachers teach. This would give the teachers honest feedback.  

“In Indiana, if we receive a lot of negative parent interactions and parent feedback and things like that, that can definitely lead to some conversations between like administrators and individual teachers,” said Mrs. Paul.

Sometimes when the students can’t stand up for their grades, their parents try to get involved. But it shouldn’t get to that point. The students should be able to give feedback if there are issues with teaching. 

Some teachers might not want to be graded because some students could be biased about the teacher. When a student is biased, it could make the teacher seem like they are not doing their job while the student is just being unfaithful. That’s why we would need trustworthy students to give their opinion on the teachers. If the students were allowed to, they would need to go through training, so they know what to look for.

“I think the students’ voices are important,” said Mrs. Paul. There are so many students’ voices that should be heard when they are having a hard time in the class. A student might not get help because they might not have the resources to get the help. So, communicating about how the students think of the teacher is important. 

“I think it could be helpful at a high school level. I think most teachers are already trying to do what’s best for the students, and many teachers already seek out student feedback on activities,” Mrs. Paul said.