Students Grading Professors?

March 10, 2010     Posted in Reality


By Sammie

Picture it: We pan over a full classroom, a man with a slightly too-tight plaid shirt and vile comb over is lecturing with the same tone and volume of a dull beeeeeeeep.  If we watch the students, we see several completely passed out while others furiously scribble notes, attempting to keep up with information that may or may not be on any exams this teacher gives. The old guy up front is so dull he makes Ferris Bueller’s teacher look like Lady Gaga, but what can you do?  The class is required and this guy is the only one who teaches it, whether the students like him or not.

But what if you, the student, got a say in that? It’s happening at Stanford, where students get to give their teachers a grade for a change. The university is using student evaluations to determine things like professor salaries and tenure.

And it’s about frakkin time! Teachers evaluate us every single day (or at least during midterms and finals) to determine our abilities – it only makes sense to let us do the same. After all, unlike the department heads, we are the ones that know them best. We’re interacting with them when we show up to class on a daily basis, sleeping through their deathly boring lectures, sitting in the libraries cursing them for their vile exams on things that we had NO IDEA would be on that test, writing papers that we know they’ll tear apart.

When it comes time for the administration to evaluate a professor, then, it’s obvious that they should come to us, the source, for the lowdown.

And allowing students to voice their opinions does more than just allow for a fairer pay scale; by giving students the right to evaluate their professors it forces teachers to change up their game to provide a better education. I mean, that’s what we’re here for, right? Why should we have to adapt to the weird professor who lectures about conspiracy theories for over an hour (in a science class) in a monotone that has the same effect as Tylenol PM just because he happens to be the only one teaching that required course? If students are able to speak up about that guy, maybe he’ll have to do something different (like keep us awake?) to stick around.

This is college; we’re supposed to be learning, not merely surviving.

Stanford is on the right track with this evaluation business and I just hope more schools will follow suit. Give the students a say in their own (crazily expensive) education?  What a novel idea.

17 Comments on "Students Grading Professors?"

  1. Elizabeth says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 201010:46 am 

    I wish my school did this!! I have had the WORST professors ever, and a couple of great ones who definitely need to fare better than those awful ones (who usually are the ones making out like bandits…really lazy bandits).

  2. Kate says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 201012:04 pm 

    Well, I'm not sure if it determines tenure or anything, but my school (Rice) has had a system of student evaluations in place for a few years now. Students are asked to evaluate their professors on everything from their availability to answer questions to the quality of their lectures. The results (along with written in comments on the professors) are available online through the same system we use to register for classes, so it's really easy to figure out if you actually want to take a certain course.

  3. Anonymous says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 201012:06 pm 

    My school (University of Maine Farmington) does this, and I'm pretty sure they've been doing it for a while, so its not exactly new and innovating to me haha

  4. Kristen says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20101:15 pm 

    My school also did this (William and Mary) and has for many, many years. We were asked to evaluate everything on a scantron sheet first, and then in all Liberal Arts classes we were given 10 short answer questions that were optional and you could write as much as you wanted. We were also asked to evaluate how much WE brought to the class, so that the student who didn't do quite so much couldn't say it was all the professor's fault. My sophomore year I had the worst professor for a science class that was required – and I was an English major who hadn't done science since 10th grade of high school – and I almost failed the class even though I was an A-B student in college. Our evaluations that year got him fired… something you can imagine I was happy about but also felt guilty about. But at least our school listened to us….

  5. Kj says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20102:11 pm 

    My school does this (Georgia Southern University). I'm really glad they do, it's nice at the end of the semester to evaluate the teacher and write about all the things we liked, hated, hope they change, etc. Not only do the department heads read these, but teachers get a copy of them so they know what we think…the only problem with it is that they know our hand writing!

  6. Ash says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20103:10 pm 

    At Marquette University in Milwaukee, we've done professor evaluations for at least the last five years and those evals have definitely affected some professor's tenure status. The professors also get to see them and sometimes they care and sometimes they don't (i.e.: if they're already tenured). It's a good system, my professors appreciate the feedback.

  7. Ashley says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20104:33 pm 

    My school (IUP) does this. They say it is for tenure and things but I don't think the school actually looks at it. But the professors say they look through their evaluations. I didn't know other schools didn't do this.

  8. Erin says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20106:23 pm 

    My school did this (RIT). We did it every quarter and a lot of teachers would say “Because of the performance reviews from last quarter I will be changing the way I teach a little”. Our reviews of the teachers were anonymous. We had to fill out a scantron sheet and were prompted to write about what we liked and didn’t like. It worked well.

  9. Elizabeth says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20106:23 pm 

    My school technically has evaluations, but they’re not mandatory, and only the department chair sees them (and doesn’t do a damn thing with them). Literally, one professor was so unclear in teaching one of my chemistry classes that 2 sections of the course (about 150 people) wrote about how horrible he is. I’m pretty sure he actually doesn’t know chemistry — there were 2 students that would end up taking over class because the professor couldn’t remember how to do anything, or did it wrong. I know other classes have written awful reviews about him too for several years. The next thing we know, he got tenure.

    I’m amazed that other schools actually do something useful with the reviews…and completely jealous! Especially of the available online thing. I would love to be able to read them.

  10. Maddie says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20106:23 pm 

    Wow! I assumed all schools did this.. The little state college I currently attend does this. I hope the school I transfer to does this too!

  11. Emily says:
    Wed, 10th Mar 20106:46 pm 

    I go to a small private school in Iowa and my school does this. The department heads and people on the committee who determine salary and tenure also sit in on classes to make sure that the professors are doing what they are supposed to. For tenure, students also get interviewed to see what the student opinions are.

  12. Kyrstin says:
    Thu, 11th Mar 20106:09 pm 

    Even at my school up in CANADA they do this.

  13. cat says:
    Mon, 15th Mar 201010:36 am 

    Most universities I know of (in Canada) do this..

  14. Lauren Hooker says:
    Sat, 20th Mar 201010:08 am 

    That's nice that schools did this; I wish mine did.

    However, I think that about 98% of the time (Have you ever read RateMyProf?!?!?) students are entirely unfair, especially if they've received a bad grade.

    I dunno; I just feel like a lot of profs get a bad rap, when you should be looking a little closer at the students; who shows up to class? Who studies? Can you really evaluate a person if you're only showing up to class once a week and never studying? Is it really their fault that you fail?

    On the flipside, there are definitely some professors who need a little bit of evaluating!!

  15. sobey says:
    Sat, 8th May 20105:16 pm 

    I wish my school Furman university did it I have had a hand full of just awful professors who really should be fired for taking money to destroy students mind you this school is tough and very expensive they also make it almost impossible to take a class over the summer at another school and transfer the credit they want the money.there is nothing we can do to complain it falls on deaf ears tensur is a pass for the unqualified tired of teaching just buying time professors.Love the school but you either have great professors that want the cream on the top or lousy professors that don't care.I love the school but we have a high transfer rate because the academics are so tough and the price so high.they trick you into thinking it's not hard to get in they give you money only to loose it first semester to the fact the they make it so hard to keep your grades up.this is not a party school in anyway but the academic pressure is in sane everyone take adderall.

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