I have been aware of the site ratemyteachers.com since I taught in Virginia almost 10 years ago. One of my students told me to check it out. I found a place where students (or anyone) could reverse the power and grade their teachers on clarity, easiness, and fairness as well as whether or not they're "cool". They can also write anything at all in the comments area, though there is a feedback system for removing inappropriate comments. This site, and others like it, are considered somewhat controversial.
What are the benefits and drawbacks of a site like this? How does it affect educators and students? How valid and valuable is the information?
Let's begin with students, at whom the site was originally directed.
Students who are going to have a new teacher can look at the feedback from other students in order to know what to expect. This is a reasonable desire, although one that is a source of disagreement among educators in regards to students. Each year teachers can ask their colleagues about the class "coming up", run over their class lists, and find out what to expect. In some ways this can be helpful; it can help get the class off on the right foot if teachers can anticipate and address the particular needs and personality of a class. It has pitfalls, as well. It prejudices a teacher against kids who were "trouble" for a colleague, even if the students have matured or interact differently with different teachers and might not have had a conflict at all. Some of my teaching friends absolutely refuse to hear any "gossip" about their incoming students in order to give everyone a "fresh start". Students getting insider information about their teachers (online or elsewhere) have the same possible goods and evils; they may get a better start or they make incorrect assumptions to their detriment.
On a related, but less important note, one questions the formatting of the information (but this applies specifically to ratemyteachers and perhaps less to other sites like askthealumni.com) What can one take from a 3.7 clarity rating, or a 4.5 for easiness? It's difficult to say, since students differ on what is "clear". Also "5" is supposed to be the "best" score, but not all student or teachers want a very easy course. I had students give me 5, 5, and 5 for easiness (wanting to be nice) and others 5, 5, and 1 (wanting to be nice but also respect the challenge of the course). If you actually asked these students how difficult the course was I highly doubt that they would actually disagree to such extremes.
This leads me to a very important point, which is the overall validity of this data. I got along well with the highly-motivated, friendly Biology students mentioned above. (And who wouldn't? They were a wonderful group!) I really appreciated their positive feedback, but I also recognize that the students who are motivated enough to add rankings are most likely to come from the extremes -- the love the teacher or they can't stand her. This type of optional feedback system will rarely give a full or balanced picture to prospective students.
Next there is the question of how accurate students are in their evaluations and whether what they "like" is synonymous with what they need (a quality education). Again, I must refer to my own experiences. A colleague of mine teaches analytical writing in his classes. It is very difficult for students, and despite his unfailing patience and support, they sometimes "hate" him for giving them low grades even though they tried, or for making them write draft after draft. I could not count the times his students have come back, years later, even seeking him out online, to thank him for teaching them to write. How often they say "I didn't appreciate it then." "Your class saved me in college." "I didn't realize how much I had learned." What would ratemyteacher have shown for him?
In another case, a teacher I knew had extremely high marks on ratemyteachers. He was a handsome new hire and the students had a great deal of fun in his class, joking with him and listening to music. It later emerged, for other reasons, that he had not actually graded any of their assignments for over a semester, had fallen asleep during class more than once, and had not covered most of the curriculum for their high-stakes exam.
All of this is not to say that the information is utterly without value. I think that sentiments that are frequently repeated, especially over multiple classes or years, especially in comments that seem measured and fair (not just squees or flames), can absolutely be of use to students. It just requires a great deal of careful judgment.
What about educators? How useful is this information to us? All the same cautions and limitations apply, and yet there is great value in honest anonymous feedback from our students.
Ratemyteachers has made recent changes to try to bring educators into the site. They offer educator accounts with which you can leave comments for your students.
Unfortunately, however, I do not feel that optional, public sites like ratemyteachers are the appropriate forum for students to give feedback about their teachers. I have used paper surveys or surveymonkey to ask students for more detailed feedback including open-ended responses. Other teachers ask students to write letters to the incoming students for the next year. I usually ask for feedback several times in a course. I find it especially useful after the first unit to get a sense of how the class is responding. The students appreciate that their feedback can be considered in time to help them, not just next year's class. I can also explain the rationale for any aspects of the course that may be unpopular but necessary. The data is better because all students participate, and the students take it more seriously in subsequent surveys.
This type of data might be more useful for prospective students as well. My university has published such data (called The Critical Review) for decades. It has been a great help to undergraduates. Such a system might or might not be workable in earlier education, where there is less choice in course selection and enrollment, and students may be less mature.
This leads me to one other great danger associated with sites like ratemyteachers, and to a lesser degree and form of anonymous feedback -- vicious and libelous comments. Educators always need an open mind and a thick skin to best deal with tactless comments, angry mutterings, or overheard hallway conversations. But public, permanent, anonymous feedback is more intense and can be brutal. Questionable comments I've seen on ratemyteacher range from the relatively harmless "I've seen that man eat an entire jelly doughnut in one bite. I think his jaw can separate like a snake." to spiteful comments (which are sometimes removed) about appearance, wardrobe, intelligence, and so on. This is a topic I hope to discuss in more depth in a post related to cyberbullying.
Thanks for the photo found through creative commons.
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