Teachers have always graded students’ performance on assignments, but students should also be allowed to grade their teachers.
A student’s feedback is just as important when it comes to grading teachers, a student is the one who sits through a lesson, and allowing them to grade how well the teacher taught them would not only help the student but also the teacher.
A teacher grading system would fix this, students could offer feedback on what would work better for them, and this would improve not only a student’s grade but their willingness to learn.
In the article, “How to grade teachers,” Marcus Winters states, “Unfortunately, the current system for evaluating public-school teachers makes no meaningful attempt to assess the influence that a teacher has on his students’ outcomes. Consequently, just about all of the nation’s public-school teachers are deemed ‘satisfactory’ on their official evaluations.”
This system would be a valuable feedback loop. The way a student benefits from constructive feedback and guidance, a teacher could also grow and evolve their strengths and figure out their weaknesses. A grading system would allow for more specific, actionable insights, helping teachers refine their approaches.
Moreover, grading teachers creates a fairer and more objective system of evaluation. While many factors influence student performance, grading teachers based on a combination of metrics — such as student feedback, classroom observations and student outcomes — can offer a more comprehensive view of an educator’s effectiveness.
In the article, “Should Students be Able to Grade Teachers?,” Micheal Gongchar asked for students to comment on whether or not students should be able to grade their teachers. One response says, “Student feedback is great. Relying on one source to see how the school is doing is not very good. A district-wide survey on each teacher would give more accountability for teachers, and give them a reason to do the best they can if they weren’t already.”
Another point in favor of grading teachers is the positive impact it could have on teacher retention. As with any profession, teachers are more likely to stay in a job where they feel supported and valued. A grading system that offers feedback and recognition for strong performance can contribute to higher job satisfaction.
In the article, “Grading Teachers, With Data from Class,” Farhad Manjoo reports about one teacher who was polled over how well she connected with students. Around 96% of the students at this academy are Hispanic meaning while their teachers are white, this reportedly led this particular teacher to score lower with students. This particular teacher was rather unimpressed with her score, this could potentially help her to better understand why her students aren’t more communicative.
Teachers have one of the most valuable roles in modern society and improving their methods by adding a teacher grading system would help with the retention of information, the overall willingness to try and learn something new, and raise the amount of high school graduates.
