Student Surveys of Teachers: Be Careful What You Ask For
Many believe that current teacher evaluation systems are a formality, a bureaucratic process that tells us little about how to improve classroom instruction. In New York, for example, 40 percent of all teacher evaluations must consist of student achievement data by 2013. Additionally, some are proposing the inclusion of alternative measures, such as “independent outside observations” or “student surveys” among others. Here, I focus on the latter.
Educators for Excellence (E4E), an “organization of education professionals who seek to provide an independent voice for educators in the debate surrounding education reform”, recently released a teacher evaluation white paper proposing that student surveys account for 10 percent of teacher evaluations.
The paper quotes a teacher saying: “for a system that aims to serve students, young people’s interests are far too often pushed aside. Students’ voices should be at the forefront of the education debate today, especially when it comes to determining the effectiveness of their teacher.” The authors argue that “the presence of effective teachers […] can be determined, in part, by the perceptions of the students that interact with them.” Also, “student surveys offer teachers immediate and qualitative feedback, recognize the importance of student voice […]”. In rare cases, the paper concedes, “students could skew their responses to retaliate against teachers or
Educators for Excellence (E4E), an “organization of education professionals who seek to provide an independent voice for educators in the debate surrounding education reform”, recently released a teacher evaluation white paper proposing that student surveys account for 10 percent of teacher evaluations.
The paper quotes a teacher saying: “for a system that aims to serve students, young people’s interests are far too often pushed aside. Students’ voices should be at the forefront of the education debate today, especially when it comes to determining the effectiveness of their teacher.” The authors argue that “the presence of effective teachers […] can be determined, in part, by the perceptions of the students that interact with them.” Also, “student surveys offer teachers immediate and qualitative feedback, recognize the importance of student voice […]”. In rare cases, the paper concedes, “students could skew their responses to retaliate against teachers or