Susan Gillespie

2/24/16
Should Students be Allowed to Grade Their Teachers?
In todays world of education, teachers are graded and assessed on
their ability to teach primarily through their students standardized test
scores. They are also evaluated based on administration evaluation, but that
has such a small impact on their total evaluation since the test score seems
to be the only thing that matters.
Standardized tests are just that, they are standard; a one size fits all
kind of assessment. However, no two students are the same or learn the
same, or even test the same! So why are we focusing so much on students
test scores when evaluating the teaching ability of the teacher. Teachers are
required to differentiate in the classroom and do the best that they can to fit
the individual needs of all of their students. However, when it comes to
standardized tests, these are not differentiated at all. Rather, it is the exact
same test given to every single student. Why does this happen? Simpleit
is cheap, fast, and easy!
In my personal opinion and probably in the opinion of many others, I
do not think teachers should be evaluated on their teaching ability primarily
by the test scores of their students. Instead, shouldnt the students be
allowed to grade their teachers and give them direct feedback of their
instruction? After all, it is the students who spend all day with the teacher,
not the administrator or those grading standardized tests.
Not only would it be beneficial for the teachers to be graded by their
students to see how they themselves can improve in their classroom
instruction, but it would also be great to get students to reflect on how well
they learned in the classroom. This doesnt need to be a formal/ end of the
year evaluation either. It could be a simple and informal end of unit
evaluation of how well you think you learned the material based on teacher
instruction and delivery.
One major downfall to this method of students grading their teachers
is that a student might not care enough to take their teacher evaluation
seriously. Also, if the student does not get along well with the teacher than
they might give the teacher a poor score even if they are an excellent
teacher.
According to the polls on http://www.debate.org/opinions/shouldstudents-grade-their-teachers, 22% of voters say no to students being
allowed to grade their teachers because of lack of maturity and inability to
measure a good teacher.
My questions to those who would like to discuss this topic is, should
we allow students to grade their teachers? And if so, how much of an impact
should this make on the pay of the teacher/ if the teacher gets to keep his or
her job? Another question could be, is their a certain age limit for students

to grade their teachers. As college students, we fill out course evaluations at

the end of the year to grade our professors. Do and should these evalutions
determine how much the teacher gets paid/ if they should keep their
teaching position. What do you think?
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/05/should-students-be-able-to-gradetheir-teachers-2/?_r=0