Why Not Teacher Evaluations by Students?

[Igel]

72. Some college kids could do it just fine.

So could some high school kids.

Many couldn't.

Many of my students had a favorite teacher. She let them listen to music in class. She didn't give them much work. She didn't refer them to the APs. No chops-busting.

She wasn't asked to come back for her second year. Her scores were more than 10% lower than other teachers. I have some of her students this year. They claim they learned a lot because they got good grades. The thoughtful ones say that she was a bad teacher--she taught them little. "But I thought she was great last year."

There's no hindsight on teacher evaluations. And most students in high school are not thoughtful.

So some college (and high school) kids would give really, really useful data. I ask my kids what I could do better. Then I throw away 90% of them that say, "Stop giving tests" or "take out all the math" or "do we have to practice the stuff in class?" I keep the ones that say, "This is how we're taught to solve this kind of math problem" or "most of the kids didn't learn ___________ and you assumed they did."