Should students grade their teachers?

An editorial by Vanessa Guevara

It has come to the attention of many educational boards that teacher
evaluations by their students is a great way to gather reliable information in
regards to their performance. It has been proven that it can increase the
teacher's motivation to do a better job. Despite the negative aspects to it,
including bias amongst the students and teachers, it is important to
understand the opinion of the students. The students are the ones who are
with their teachers the most during instruction and who better to evaluate
their teachings but them. This system can be applied to many different
schools starting from elementary to high school and the students will have
the ability to share their opinion on their instructors.
Evaluation is a powerful thing as it demonstrates the evaluated how they are
performing in their tasks. I believe the evaluation of teachers can be a great
way to see a teacher's performance. There have been many teachers in the
education system that have poor work ethic and motivation towards their
job. It is important to point out a person's mistakes in their tasks that they
are being paid for, in order for it to balance out. It wouldn't be fair for a
devoted teacher who is passionate about her job to be paid the same as a
teacher who falls asleep in class carelessly. A student comes across many
unmotivated teachers that simply are not driven to their career choice, and it
is best to point out that obvious information. A student performs better when
their instructor shows genuine interest in the classroom. It is a common way
of thinking for a person to say "if he/she doesn't care, why should I?". This
demonstrates how a student can do poorly in a classroom due to lack of the
teacher's motivation.
Sometimes, the teacher is so uninterested in their class, that everyone has
an A because the teacher doesn't bother to ask for real work, and if they do,
they don't grade it fairly. There are countless of classes that if a student asks
about it to a current class member, they respond "we do nothing in that
class, it's an easy A." This way of education is putting today's children behind
in school just because of a lazy, unmotivated teacher. Public schooling
shouldn't be just a temporary daycare system to keep kids off of the streets.
It should be for what it was intentionally made for: to educate. People
shouldn't take their kids to school just to keep them out of trouble, they
should do it for the right reasons and demand the right education for their
children.

With these evaluations, school boards and principals will understand how
their classrooms are working when they're not around. Occasionally an
Assistant Principal walks in the classroom, but we all know that's not a
reliable way to get that type of information. I've has many teachers that
have told me to "keep busy" or "pretend like you're doing work". I do not
approve of this behavior and I believe a teacher evaluation is necessary for
these types of teachers.
References

Griffiths M., Honerod H., Todd S., Winter C,. (2015) Re-imagining relationships in
education : ethics, politics and practices, Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell

Seldin, P. (1993). Rating student ratings of professors. Education Digest, 59(2), 70.
Farber, J. (2008). Teaching and Presence. Pedagogy, 8(2), 215-225.
doi:10.1215/15314200-2007-038
LaFEE, S. (2014). Students Evaluating Teachers. Education Digest, 80(3), 410.
METN, M. (2013). Teachers' Difficulties in Preparation and Implementation of
Performance
Darling-Hammond, L., Amrein-Beardsley, A., Haertel, E., & Rothstein, J. (2012).
Evaluating teacher evaluation. Phi Delta Kappan,93(6), 8-15.
O'Donnell P. (2014). Ohio students soon could be grading their own teachers .
Covering Northeast Ohio Retrieved from:
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2014/05/ohio_students_could_
soon_be_gr.

Manjoo F. (2014) Grading Teachers, With data from class. New York Times. Retrieved
from: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/technology/students-gradeteachers-and-a-start-up-harnesses-the-data.html?
module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Technology&action=
keypress&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article
Scholar Advisor, Should students be Allowed to Grade their teachers? (2014)
Retrieved from: http://www.scholaradvisor.com/essay-examples/effect-essaystudents-allowed-grade-teachers/