Boston Students Push to Include Their Opinions in Teachers’ Evaluations

From the Marshall Memo #434

“As people across the country discuss supporting and evaluating teachers, why are they not involving those with the most intimate knowledge of the classroom?” ask members of the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) in this Harvard Educational Review article. “As students, we are the ones in the classroom, and our futures are affected by what happens there every day.” 

BSAC leaders describe how they approached Boston central office and teachers’ union officials in 2006 with the idea of including student opinions in teachers’ evaluations, and piloted their Friendly Feedback Form in one Boston high school during the 2007-08 school year. Teachers suggested some edits to the questionnaire, 400 students filled it out anonymously, the results were tabulated, teachers received a summary of the feedback in sealed envelopes, and student leaders presented the overall results in a schoolwide professional development meeting, highlighting best practices being used in classrooms and areas for improvement. “In addition to learning valuable facts and figures from this session,” they write, “this discussion allowed students and teachers to improve their relationships and promote a more positive school culture.”

In another Boston high school, teachers balked at being evaluated by students, but the administrators volunteered. BSAC members created an Administrator Constructive Feedback Form and went through a similar process with the administrative team with positive results.

Based on the success of these pilots, BSAC leaders proposed that all Boston high-school students should evaluate their teachers. They worked with district and union officials to create a two-page questionnaire on student learning and classroom management and instruction that could be filled out in less than 15 minutes, with open-response questions voluntary in case students were worried that their handwriting could be recognized.

BSAC members were careful to include a section for students to reflect on their own learning practices in each classroom. “This self-reflection would help students take more ownership of their education and also reduce the potential for ‘teacher bashing’,” they write. “Favoring easy teachers and penalizing demanding teachers was a huge concern from many of the people with whom we met. In order to alleviate this concern, we decided it was important to evaluate ourselves too. If we could not honestly and openly respond to questions about our own learning, then perhaps we could not honestly provide feedback to our instructors.” 

Boston’s school board unanimously approved the questionnaire and implementation plan in May 2010, and it was implemented in 29 Boston high schools during the 2010-11 school year. The response was “overwhelmingly positive,” according to the authors, with teachers saying it gave them a better understanding of how students were learning and specific ideas for improving instruction. 

The next step was pushing to have student feedback included as an official part of Boston teachers’ evaluations. In a survey, 86 percent of the city’s high-school headmasters supported this move. BSAC didn’t stop there; its leaders began actively campaigning to have student voice included in the new Massachusetts teacher evaluation system. In June 2011, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted on an evaluation framework that includes student feedback in teacher evaluations beginning in 2013-14, with details to be worked out after further study.

The BSAC authors end by noting the support among students around the nation for a voice in teacher evaluation. Some school districts are moving in this direction – for example, the Brookline (MA) schools strongly encourage teachers to solicit student feedback as part of their evaluations. Getting teachers on board with the idea is a prime BSAC goal: “After all, the messaging of the importance of student voice in teacher evaluations will be much more powerful coming from teachers and students together. We need to continue improving the teacher evaluation system as a cohesive unit. Teachers and students are both heavily invested in the education system,” they say. “We have to work together.”

“‘We Are the Ones in the Classrooms – Ask Us!’ Student Voice in Teacher Evaluations” by the Boston Student Advisory Council: Abibatu Bayoh, Dan Chu, Adam Fischer, Cheria Funches, Ayan Hassan, Teena-Marie Johnson, Damien Leach, Xin Jian (Peter)Li, Eseniolla Maitre, Steve Marcelin, Will Poff-Webster, Carlos Rojas, Christina Moriah Smith, Colin Smith, Dennis Tan, Rosanna Velasquez, Mengning (Melinda) Wang, Rachel Wingert, and adult staff: Rachel Gunther, Caroline Lau, Maria Ortiz, and Jenny Sazama in Harvard Educational Review, Spring 2012 (Vol. 82, # 1, p. 153-162),

http://her.hepg.org/content/t3lu73624p0p31w2/