School districts across the country should implement formal student evaluations of teachers. Students spend more time with teachers than any administrator does, making them uniquely qualified to assess teaching effectiveness.
Consider the evidence: a Harvard study found that students' perceptions of teaching quality correlated strongly with their actual learning gains. When students say a teacher explains concepts clearly, tests generally confirm those students learned more. Meanwhile, traditional evaluations - where administrators observe one or two lessons per year - capture only a tiny, often unrepresentative snapshot of a teacher's practice.
Student evaluations work successfully in higher education. Nearly every college uses student feedback as part of faculty assessment. If eighteen-year-olds can provide useful feedback about their professors, surely middle and high schoolers can offer insights about their teachers.
Critics argue that students might rate teachers based on entertainment value or easy grades rather than actual learning. This concern has some merit, which is why student feedback should be ONE component of evaluation, not the only measure. Questions can be designed to focus on specific teaching practices rather than general popularity. Research shows that when surveys ask about concrete behaviors ("Does your teacher check for understanding before moving on?"), student responses become reliable predictors of learning.
Teachers who oppose student evaluations often claim that students "don't know what good teaching looks like." But this argument is patronizing. Students absolutely know when they're confused, when explanations don't make sense, or when a teacher seems unprepared. They may not have pedagogical training, but they have direct experience as learners.
The real question isn't whether students should have a voice in evaluating teachers - it's whether we're brave enough to listen.