Students Rating Teachers: Good or Bad?
Over time, school has evolved and taken on a big role in our society. It is the place where students are given knowledge to help them become successful and where they realize their own capabilities for the future. Just as important, however, are the teachers.
A school cannot be successful without good teachers, but how do the schools know which are the good teachers and which are the bad ones? This problem brings to life a tough question: should students be able to rate their teachers at the end of the year based on how well they taught the class? I do believe that students should be able to grade teachers because it would help improve or get rid of the bad ones, the good teachers would be noticed for their hard work, and the students would benefit from the system in the future. With the system, students would be able to make the administration of their school realize which teachers are doing a good job and which ones are doing a poor job. There have been a couple of teachers in the past, even in middle school, whom I wished that I could have rated. For example, last year I took a class that is widely considered one of the toughest classes in the school. Obviously, I expected the class to be hard, but the class was much more time consuming than I expected.
The teacher did a less than impressive job of teaching the material each week, which forced everyone in the class to learn half the material on our own each week before the test. I wish that the other students and I could rate that teacher to show that he or she needs to improve the way they teach to head that specific class. I can see the point that some students would grade their teachers based solely on the fact that they did not get the grade he or she wanted in that class. This could negatively affect a teacher who is doing a good job, but the students do not like them for it. This problem could be avoided by either letting only students that got A’s rate them or take the majority vote. The system would not only help with the bad teachers, but it could also show which teachers are excelling in their work and putting a lot effort into their job.
Sometimes good teachers go unnoticed because they have not been at the school as long as others. I noticed this first-hand in a class I took in eighth grade where a teacher was gone for a whole year and a new teacher came in to teach the class for that year. That specific teacher was one of the best I have ever had in my life. Although it was middle school, he ran it like a high school class. Even though it was hard, I learned things much easier with his methods of teaching than any other class.
Then when the other teacher came back the next year, my teacher was pushed back out of a permanent teaching job. The rating system would allow the administration to know which teachers are doing their job well. Another problem lies within this idea also in that some students may grade a teacher highly just because they like him or her as a person even if that teacher is not good at their job. Again, I think this problem could be averted by getting taking a majority vote or by personally asking some of the students why they like the teacher. This would give the administrators the ability to discover the truth of why students rate that specific teacher highly.
Not only would it help with the quality teachers, but this system would also benefit students in the future. The school authorities would be able to eliminate the bad teaching in their school and give their students the best education possible. This would set up students to be successful in their next year of high school or in their transition into college. I have experienced a couple rough transitions, specifically in math classes. I have gone from one year to the next where a teacher expects me to have learned certain things from the previous year that I did not learn. The grading system would allow students to get a consistently solid education.
Some may argue that the system would not completely rid the school of these problems, but there will always be some problems. The system would expel most of the problems leaving only minor ones that can be handled. Overall, students rating teachers at the end of the year would improve the bad teachers, bring attention to the teachers doing their job well, and would set up students for success in the future. Although the system has some flaws, they can easily be avoided. This system would enhance the education of all students and allow them to make a smooth transition into college. Not only would it help students, but it would also let the hardest working teachers to excel.
The teacher-rating system is a win-win situation as schools would be able to maximize both the potential of students and the effectiveness of teachers.
