Remember that teacher who gave outrageously hard tests that everyone failed, yet had no care of when everyone failed.  I feel students should be able to grade their teachers due to them spending more time than anyone else, research shows students are better observers than trained adults, and teachers are responsible for having a good learning environment.

Students in the teacher’s classroom spend more time with that teacher than anyone else in the school.  The board, principal, and other teachers are never in the classroom. Students sit and stare and evaluate all the good and bad habits of every teacher.  They spend most of their class studying and analyzing their teachers.  They learn to know which teachers keep good order in a classroom.  Which teachers gives effective lectures and which teachers seem to care about how the students do on the tests.  They observe which teachers are willing to help you if you have questions and which teachers will not even answer your question. Which teachers are just plain burnt out and don’t care to be there at all.  Students observe and learn to know these things.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2009 researched on 3,000 teachers in seven cities to see what makes teachers more effective.  Thomas Kane led this study and called it “Measures of Effective Teaching”.  He included students’ perspective of what they thought of their teachers.  They realized that students were more accurate at observing their teachers than trained adult observers.  Students in a classroom have tons of time to form an opinion.  Even students that didn’t care to do the assignment and blew it off, they found only 1 percent of kids did that.  So overall students’ feedback could help the school systems across the nation.

They shared how accountability is a 2-way street.  Teachers should be accountable to their students for creating an environment that helps students learn. Teachers can either help or hinder this by their attitudes, knowledge, respect, enthusiasm, and connection.  Which is important for a positive learning environment.

To be an effective teacher you need to be able to hear what the students have to say.  All kids, especially teenagers, want to be heard and to voice their opinions.  It is important to share observations from the students and then have them explain why they feel that way.  Students should have a voice and it should be heard.  Students are the future of this country and it will depend on how well they are succeeding and doing in the classroom.    If they are able to explain their observations, and help pinpoint troubles in the classroom, this is a win/win outcome for both the student and the teacher.