Students Grading Professors?

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. Read More »