In school, the ability of teachers to grade students is critical to students’ success. Grading lets students know where they stand in understanding specific topics they have learned about. Grading is not the most effective method of showing how well someone understands something. However, despite the fact that students are graded on almost everything they do in school, teachers themselves are not put to any sort of quality check by students. For example, if the teacher thinks the student tried hard, they might give half-credit on a test. Or if the teacher does not think the student deserves a good grade, they could reduce the student’s grade. As a way to balance this and help improve the quality of teaching, students should be able to grade their teachers in every school as well.
The first point of grading teachers would simply be quality control. If most of the students in a simple class fail, then the school administrators know the teacher might not be teaching the best way. But what about when a teacher changes grades to make their outcomes look better? By letting students grade teachers, the students can give feedback, and administrators can consider this to see if the teacher is really doing alright or if they are just making themselves look good. These additional inputs will give more insight into how the teacher is doing, allowing administrators to better draw their own conclusions. Including students in their own education is important.
The second point of why having students grade teachers is a good idea is because it actually involves the students in their learning. The big problem today is that students are being taught, but they are not actually being engaged in their learning. The school system is something that they have to “get through,” instead of build on. When students feel like they are constantly under the microscope, it will cause some to hate school. Letting students grade teachers is a very simple and effective way to show students their opinions matter. It will also help administrators better understand students.
If students grade teachers in subjects they are not good at, it will tell a lot about their motivation. For example, if one teacher normally gets good feedback from students, then a student who fails and grades the teacher poorly will obviously not be motivated properly. So administrators could focus on helping this student become motivated instead of just trying to teach them the same subject over and over. That way the main problem can be addressed, instead of just a symptom.
Allowing students to grade teachers would be helpful for many reasons. Among those are it can help improve the quality of teaching, and can also help involve students in their learning more. It could also help administrators look deeper at individual students by seeing who has problems with motivation. Letting students grade teachers is not a final solution for improving education, but it is a step in the right direction.