The Jury's Verdict in Students' Hands - teacher's evaluation - Brief Article

School Administrator, Oct, 2000

At the end of every semester, the dean at the University of Maryland's College of Journalism asks the students in the editing course I teach to assess my performance in a variety of categories. Then, a few weeks later, the dean dutifully sends me a compilation of my students' marks and a comparison of how I fared to other instructors of the same course that term.

After 12 years of teaching, I'm rarely surprised anymore by what the students say about me. Few students seem capable of rising above the pain of disappointing grades to recognize the potential long-term value of a course (especially one as mundane as copy editing) in which they are held to high standards. Those who've performed well are more inclined to assign better marks, although not uniformly, I've found.

In spite of that usual correlation, I still find it helpful to know periodically how I am doing in the eyes of my students and what they see as most valuable (and least relevant) to their needs as the next wave of print and broadcast journalists, public relations directors and Web-based producers.

As free-lance writer Jay Mathews reports in our lead article this month, the use of student and parent feedback data in public schools has been rather slow to catch on among school districts, in large measure due to the resistance or reluctance of teachers' organizations.

You'll also find in this theme issue on evaluating personnel a piece about the latest school district attempts to attach student test scores to teacher assessment and ultimately annual bonus payments.

Just as I've kept an open mind about the merits of student feedback on my teaching, I hope you will give serious attention to these emerging practices in the heated arena of professional evaluation.

Jay P. Goldman

Voice: 703-875-0745

E-mail: jgoldman@aasa.org