January 27, 2004

• To quote: "Mr.P, you rock" I use ratemyprofessors.com all the time. My first semester of college I had quite possibly the worst set of professors on the planet, since then I'v gotten crafty. P.S. keep up rapping dog?
• Heh, I like the idea of a ratemystudents.com site. I wonder if it, like ratemyprofessors.com, would have a "hot" option. I think we talked about the ratemyprofessors site recently on here and I found that the comments and ratings on my professors were spot-on (even down to the hotness rating on my junior college history lecturer).
• You really have to use these as opinions and nothing more. I use ratemyprofessors and I've disagreed in the past. It seems like the ratings tend not to be positive in tougher classes, classes which I sometimes like. Unfortuanately they often lead to negative teacher grades. Lastly, at least for my school, there's often only a couple of comments per teacher; which makes the site a bit of a wild guess. I've had overrated and underrated teachers in my experience with it.
• Check out very similar thread on December 2 titled "My Professional Nightmare" for complementary and contradictory input on the college front...
• I agree that the site must be taken as guesses, but how do we really know that a teacher is over- or underrated? I have many colleagues at my school whom I suspect of being good teachers, but I've never been in their class, so I wouldn't feel comfortable saying whether it's the case or not. Obviously, if kids don't do well in a class, many of them are likely to blame the teacher. Inversely, if kids ace a class, they make think the teacher "rox" -- even if it's just an easy class because the teacher doesn't put much work into it. Still, I think it's an interesting glimpse into an important source of feedback. (My students don't say much when I ask how I'm doing; in such instances they naturally feel pressured to be positive, even when I make it clear that I want 100% honesty.)
• "shes nice but maybe a teacher isnt her calling she messed up a lotta kid this year w/ the regents but its not her fault she cant teach for her life" Preach, son, PREACH!
• Like Spooky, I always use ratemyprofessors.com to pick classes. It's usually quite accurate, and in a university setting where you are paying for your education, it's good to make sure in advance that (i) you will pass the course and (ii) you will actually learn something. The most useful part of the site isn't the rankings but the comments. At the high school level, at least in Canada, I don't see how such a site would be useful as we could never choose our teachers. I suppose it does give more freedom for peer review - although usually the teachers who do care about their quality of teaching are good teachers anyway.
• At my smaller college getting advice from friends is definitely the way to go. A short rating probably is not going to capture finer points of a class that can make or break them. We do have a professor rating system setup by a student on campus but it's not too complete yet. I think especially at younger ages, there's likely to be a wide discrepancy between what students think makes a good teacher and what teachers think. In theory a great teacher should be able to motivate the class so that their ideas of good teaching matched up a bit more but in my experience, things like how worthwhile the class was and how much I liked the teacher are only loosly correlated. On a side note, I'm a junior and college and have just started substituting during my extended christmas break. What little work I've had has been pretty fun, although it's odd being so transient.
• The last time I checked ratemyprofessor.com, my advisor was listed with his name misspelled and no reviews.
• The original December 2, 2003 posting of ratemyteacher.com by Dizzy. I graduated from college 3 years ago, before this website was available. That being said, if it indeed was around, I would have never consulted the sophomoric evaluations to help me pick a professor. Judging the poor quality/accuracy of the evaluations, I think I'd be better off consulting the magic 8 ball.
• I remember this from my City College of San Francisco days (which were many I'm afraid). I emailed the site author (I think he was the original of this ilk) saying I thought it was good idea. There are 30,000 students at that school, most are not full-time students, and it's a mean lesson to learn when you and your professor don't connect after 6 months. However: Shopping for easy grades is bad. However again: Some Profs are better than others. I don't know how to balance the ratings given by the students with the eventual achievements of the students. I hated some of my best teachers. Shout out to Mr. Helgeson of Lincoln High. Twenty-one years later and I can still factor equations. Prick he was. Great teacher too.
• To those of you who think that ratemyprofessor.com sounds like a good idea: let me recommend this article, which exposes the unreliability of student evaluation. Or if you don't want to wade through the entire article, there is a convenient summary here. The article contains some interesting statistics: e.g. one study reported that a third of faculty respondents admitted lowering their grading standards in response to student evaluation. It also argues that if student evalation is made publicly available, it can lead to a violation of due process. "It is illegal to post a student's grades using a social security number or date of birth", yet "anecdotal student remarks about faculty teaching are not only used in determining faculty salary increases, promotion and tenure decisions, they are openly published on some university campuses and sanctioned by some administrators and state governmental officials". Speaking anecdotally: I know of several cases where student evaluation has been blatantly misused. In one case, students were encouraged to post unflattering comments about a friend of mine (teaching at an American university) at the instigation of another faculty member who wanted to ensure that my friend would be refused tenure. Student evaluation, wrongly used, can ruin someone's career. Do students realise their own power? Do the owners of sites like ratemyprofessor.com realise their own power? Or if they realise, do they care?
• I'm not looking to be argumentative verstegan, and as I said above "I don't know how to balance the ratings given by the students with the eventual achievements of the students. I hated some of my best teachers. but your ...article contains some interesting statistics: e.g. one study reported that a third (bold mine) of faculty respondents admitted lowering their grading standards in response to student evaluation. Grade inflation by another name? That means two thirds (bold mine) didn't lower their grading standards. And for the purposes of this discussion I'd say that students have much less power over their professors futures than the professors have over the students futures. That, and students don't do much hiring or firing at most schools. Perhaps your argument is with the regents.
• Nor am I looking to be argumentative, vapidave. I'm just trying to stir up the discussion a bit. I'd say that students have much less power over their professors futures than the professors have over the students futures. Point taken. The power relationship cuts both ways. But there are two points I'd want to make in reply: First: if teachers criticise their students, their comments will remain confidential. My objection to ratemyprofessor.com is that hurtful and potentially damaging comments are being made available for anyone to read. Secondly: if students feel they have been unfairly treated, then they have (or should have, in any good school or university) the right to appeal. My objection to ratemyprofessor.com is that, as far as I can see, there is no way for teachers to reply to comments made about them.
• "You go to school to learn, not for a fashion show." -Fresh Prince Teachers shouldn't care how they rate in the student body's ongoing popularity content. It's nice to be liked, but it's FAR more important to be effective.
• popularity "contest" dammit! See, if my spelling teacher had worried about whether I could spell, instead of worrying about whether I liked her and was going to continue meeting her to have intercourse, I wouldn't be subjecting you my literary depredations today!
• Um...understanding more about Fes, not that there's anything wrong with that. verstegan. Stir up the discussion is great. Phew, I was worried I was being a jerk. To respond: First: Teachers have at least 2 ways to criticise, comments and grades. Grades are somewhat more public than comments. Second: Agreed. Somewhat. For ratemystudents.com see transcripts. And Third: Piggy shouldn't have sole control of the conch. But should have some. I've invested time in a few careers and I can only imagine what it must mean to have any criticism directed at me without recourse. My thinking on this is irrespective of the fuck the benefactors parents of legacy admissions of the schools though; I figure that the professor that is handing out the most failing grades is probably the most honest. Another to add to my "If I were King" file.
• I don't see any option for people outside AmericaLand to rate their teachers. This confuses me. There seems to be no reason whatsoever why that should be the case.
• oh BBF, you've never been to an USian school have you? Things like geography can sometimes slip through the cracks. Example: my roommate didn't know Britain was an island until, oh about... last week.
• It's okay, until the other day my friend thought Jesus was shot.
• "he has some spastic moments but he's really laid back about sitting by ppl and talking." heh.
• BBF: I don't see any option for people outside AmericaLand to rate their teachers Actually, Canadian schools are also included, but then again, most Americans think that is part of Americaland. Even though they seem to know even less about us than about the rest of the world. :) There are a lot of good reasons why student evaluations of this sort - or even of the good, systematic (ie. majority of class submits) ones - the fact that female professors are consistently marked lower than male with no discernable reasoning, that attractiveness is rated higher, as are entertaining but unltimately uninformative lecturers, and so forth (I haven't had time, but I will definately be checking out your article, verstegan, thanks.) But I can tell you one, absolutely rock-solid reason not to consider ratemyprof reliable - I have personally gone in and given multiple good reviews to professors I like to get them so that they would have smily faces. Of course, I thought they deserved them - that's why I did it. But what's to stop someone with a grudge doing just that? Even with registration, you can easily register multiple times. I have found the comments interesting, some true, some just betray the stupidity of the student. (Some, like mine, are just silly obsequies :) The fact is that while some professors are good, and some bad, teachers, many more are very good teachers for some students while being unable to reach the some others. (Though my experience has generally been that it is the lazy and often stupid* students who want to blame their professor for their lack of learning.) But frankly, I wouldn't choose my classes that way. I would choose my classes by what I wanted to learn - and only choose by professor only when deciding whether to take a second class with the same professor. It must have been a good plan - I did well and got into graduate school. My advice to anyone in undergraduate - take what you love, because what you love is most likely what you will do well in, because you put your heart in it. (I mean stupid in the might have brains but has decided for whatever reason that they have no desire to use them category. I deeply respect developmentally disabled people - they are much more willing to try to the best of their ability)
• take what you love I did, and the professor was so mind numbingly awful I almost changed my major after dropping the class. When I discovered RMP she was the first one I checked and found my opinion to be totally justified. RMP definately has major flaws. But anyone who decides to take/not take a class based on one review or on a "this prof is sooooooo easy" testimonial probably isn't going to college for the same reasons I am. RMP is just a shorter way of walking around the campus asking if anyone took a certain prof in the past; suggestions have to be taken with a grain of salt. However, if a prof has a dozen reviews that all say "this prof can't teach/is insulting/bathes in the blood of children" than I feel justified in choosing a different prof.
• Actually, I did change my major after having a particularly bad professor. (Though that was only a final straw, rather than the only reason). I guess I get bitter, because I keep looking up professors that I know are good solid teachers - maybe not brilliant, but definately a B - and seeing "terrible lecturer", "awful class" - or worst of all, the low rating with no explanation. One professor I knew had that - her only rating (that gave her a big blue unhappy face) was all 1s, no explanation. This is a woman who is not only a leader in her field, but has graduate students clamoring to work in her lab. (She actually teaches graduate classes only, so it must have been someone in the masters or PhD program). I have also seen professors who gave the most disorganised and difficult to follow lectures be rated highly, because they were entertaining. I just worry that the student rating website is more likely to attract grudges than askng people on campus, and after reading the article verstegan linked, I can see that there are more serious issues at work here as well. That said, I did proceed to look up all of my old highschool teachers and, though niccolo is right in pointing out that Canadians, or at least Ontarioans, have no way to pick highschool teachers (we were just assigned), it was satisfying to see that I was not the only one who suffered at the hands of the English teacher who failed my essay for showing a little originality in its approach to the topic. She gave me 9/25 because I wrote on the question of whether Ophelia was insane or not, rather than Hamlet. Apparently, all essays about Ophelia fell into the "Women in the Play" category, and I had not written about Gertrude. I had gone well and beyond the requirements of that essay, because I thought Hamlet deserved a good effort, and yes, it still rankles. Hey, the thread can turn into highschool academic trauma counseling! Not all highschool trauma though, that would be much much too long : )
• I had a crush on my 9th grade history teacher. Many a time I gazed lovingly into her Herodotus and thought of her admiring my Xerxes oral.
• and yes, it still rankles Ah, come on, you in grad skewl now an she a dum hack.
• Wolof, I know - but I'm really immature. Interestingly enough, I enjoyed literature courses in university, though it is not my specialisation. University literature study seems to bear no relation to so-called high school English.
• I got Xerxes oral from a greek girl once. I _think_ it was a girl.
• Sounds like a disease you'd catch. "Yeah, I got the Xerx. It's cool though, the guy down at the clinic said it wasn't contagious or nuthin."