Rating, reviewing and roasting

Junior Alan Bateman carefully considers the choices on the green and purple screen in front of him. He forgoes commenting and selects a few numbers: two for easiness, five for helpfulness and four for clarity. She is a great teacher, albeit tough. A few minutes later, Bateman's grading of Magnet math teacher Judith Bishop appears on RateMyTeachers.com, a site that has turned the tables on teachers and put the power of evaluation in students' hands.

RateMyTeachers.com is the first web site that allows students from thousands of schools in the United States to publicly comment on teachers' performances. The site, with more than 400,000 teachers from over 23,000 schools, currently hosts 402 opinions about 72 Blair teachers and claims to "expose ineffective teachers and broadcast praise for stellar teachers." The average rating for a Blair teacher is 3.7 out of five.

Students give teachers ratings between one and five in the categories of helpfulness and clarity, which are averaged to determine teacher quality. Easiness, a third category, also receives a rating between one and five but does not contribute to a teacher's grade. Students have space for commenting limited by strict rules on libel and cursing.

RateMyTeachers.com co-founder Tim Davis created the site in accordance with his beliefs about education. "Students have always been the ‘silent customers' of the education system," asserts Davis on the web site. "Now they have a forum for voicing what they think."

Magnet science teacher Robert Donaldson is popular on RateMyTeachers.com, with comments like "extremely cool" on his ratings. "I'd like to thank my sons and daughters," he jokes. He then seriously points out the fact that ratings on the web site are open to everyone, not just his students. "Just anybody can send in comments. I could have had my sons post or given a dollar to every student," warns Donaldson.

Social studies teacher Marc Grossman agrees that RateMyTeachers.com is not necessarily accurate or unbiased. "There is a large space for [RateMyTeachers.com] to be abused," he states.

Some teachers have devised creative solutions to RateMyTeachers.com's possible infringement of teacher rights. Magnet math teacher David Stein denounces the site to students, declaring, "You shouldn't be able to anonymously criticize someone online." But Stein has his plan worked out. "I want to start RateMyStudents.com, and click on her!" he exclaims, pointing at a loudly giggling student. "And see how she feels!"

One Blair teacher, who wishes to remain anonymous and received a low rating of 1.5 out of five on RateMyTeachers.com, considers the web site open to misuse because of its vagueness. "Obviously I am not happy about [my rating]," she remarks. However, she feels teachers can benefit from student input about their performance in the classroom. "It is important for teachers to get feedback from students," she maintains. "I feel very strongly about freedom of expression."

While RateMyTeachers.com is open to abuse or overly harsh criticism for teachers, it may currently be the best voice for many students. MCPS has no "fully formal way students evaluate teachers," according to Mary Spon, director of UNISERV, a branch of the Montgomery County Education Association that oversees teacher evaluations.

The current teacher assessment system uses evaluations from fellow teachers and administrators to judge teacher performance but has no input from students themselves. "We do believe students are important but not in an employer/employee relationship," Spon explains.

On the other hand, students are eager to grade teachers. According to an informal Silver Chips poll of 100 Blazers conducted the week of Sept 8, 76 percent believe students should be able to officially evaluate teachers to improve their performance.

Freshman Ruth Sandejas feels evaluating teacher performance gives students the chance to speak their minds. "When students say something, sometimes the teachers do not listen," she says.

For sophomore Yanet Shifeau, having a heads-up on teachers can prevent a tough year. "I need to know what they'll be like so I can change my courses ahead of time," says Shifeau.

Junior Abi Kallushi believes well thought-out critiques would improve teacher performance. "No one likes to be criticized, but criticism leads to progress," she asserts. "[RateMyTeachers.com] is a nice step forward, a small step, but still nice."

While RateMyTeachers.com does not give teachers the real discussion they may desire, it does allow students to express their true opinions. However, as Grossman says, if students cannot constructively criticize their teachers, students, and not teachers, may be the problem. "Truthfully, a lot of students who, in my mind, expressed the most dissatisfaction wrote the least. When that happens, [evaluating teachers] is a larger issue," he says.

Editor's Note: RateMyTeachers.com is inaccesible from school because of MCPS filtering software