RateMyTeachers
From LIS 460 Summer 2007
Contents |
What is it?
Ratemyteachers.com is a controversial website designed for students and parents to anonymously submit "honest, essential critique" of teachers. According to co-founder Michael Hussey, the site was a direct response to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is a way for students' and parents' voices to be heard in the teacher accountability debate. Since the ratings and comments on RateMyTeachers.com are from the students themselves, the site is protected from legal action by the First Amendment.
How does it work?
A student can log in and rate the teacher from 1-5 on three different aspects: helpfulness, clarity, and overall quality. Easiness is another category that students can rate, but it is not integrated in the final score since it is a controversial category. Although ratemyteacher does not condone it, they inclue the "easiness" category since realistically, many students take courses based on this quality. Ratemyteacher has included a "response" category where teachers are encouraged to respond to their feedback.
Rules
Ratemyteacher is not a free-for-all slag fest for students. There are strict rules by which they need to abide, or their entry will be deleted. Students can not submit entries with: swearing, sexual comments, critiques on personal appearance or physical disabilities, name-calling, references to alcohol/drug abuse or law infractions, references to sexual orientation, age, ethnic background, or religion, or references to teachers' personal lives. They go further to stipulate that entries that threaten a teacher/student/school property or entries that threaten to inflict self-harm will be turned over to the authorities with the IP address.
Other Special Features
Ratemyteacher is not just a public rating system... it provides some good resources for students as well. The "RMT Forum" has a variety of discussion threads, including the most recent question about implications of teachers' sexual orientation and teacher crushes. These discussion threads are lively and respectful with participation from both teachers and students. Another great resources is the "Advice Column," a place where students and parents can ask a real guidance counsellor questions about teachers, school, friends, college, etc. The questions are posted in a "Dear Abby" type format and posted for all to see and learn from.
Can this be used in the school library?
The "wall of shame" shows that 929 schools and 180 school districts have banned Ratemyteachers (as of April 27, 2007). Filtering it from school computers and sending notes home demanding students to stop rating their teachers is absolute madness! It's like trying to stop a freight train! Instead of rejecting it outright, school districts and individual schools need to embrace the tool that is enabling the students to thoughtfully and succinctly evaluate their education. Students and parents have every right, and it's not until college or university when they're given the opportunity to do so. Perhaps by implementing access to this free, evaluative software at the school level twice a year, the teachers could see where they need to improve midyear and work towards improving their rating by year end. This could be administered by the school librarian.
Questions still lingering...
Although I completely support the evaluation of teachers at the elementary/high school level, I'm not sure it should be done so brazenly online! Does it turn into an inevitable popularity contest even though the rating categories and rules try to eliminate this from happening? Obviously there is a high level of discomfort among teachers when they're compared to each other in such a transparent way! Students' evaluation reports aren't available for public viewing, so does it makes sense to have the teachers? If the RateMyTeachers people were interested in turning those "wall of shame" numbers down, then they should work together with district administrators to create an "invite" only rating system so it can be used seriously as an evaluative tool. Or maybe schools should leave it alone and have one haven where students feel safe to provide honest feedback. Perhaps it wouldn't be so widely used if schools got their paws on it?
Links
Check out these articles:
Cooper, B. S., et. al. "Students Grading Us?" Education Week 22, no. 40 (2003): 26.
Dyrli, Odvard Egil. "Students Rating Teachers Online." The Online Edge 26 (2006): 63.
Vail, Kathleen. "Who Knows Teachers Best? Kids Do." The American School Board Journal 190, no.12 (2003): 9-10.
Don't forget to explore the site itself:
