As semesters come to a close, many Parker teachers practice the same ritual of distributing class reviews in order to refine their curriculum and teaching method.

Inevitably, every teacher has different ways of gaging student feedback. Some teachers prefer in-class feedback where they can see what comments derive from particular students.

Upper School math teacher Robert Wilson assigns an non-anonymous survey at the end of the semester. “I have an internal evaluation that I have kids do that is more purposeful for me to brush up on places that could be better,” Wilson said. “It also helps me get feedback for things that are working very well.”

By soliciting internal evaluations, students may be forced to censor themselves as opposed to how they may conduct themselves on an anonymous evaluation. “I don’t solicit a lot of anonymous feedback,” Wilson said. “I work under the impression that if you can’t say it to my face or write it in an email if that’s more comfortable, it must not be something really all that important.”

On the other hand, there are some teachers who prefer anonymous feedback. According to Upper School English teacher Cory Zeller, anonymous evaluations allow students to express any concern without the fear of the teacher disliking them — students can be more honest. “It’s anonymous,” Zeller said, “so the feedback you might get would be different than if you solicited it in your classroom and students feel that their perception of you if tied to a grade.”

Zeller previously distributed an anonymous, in-class survey through Survey Monkey, but later changed the way she gathered student feedback. “Two years ago, I gave time in-class for those surveys, but then I felt weird because I thought well maybe they think I’m going to walk around the room and see what they’re doing,” Zeller said. “So I felt like I wasn’t getting their most authentic responses.”

Starting just last year, Zeller tried a new method while still utilizing Survey Monkey. “Last year I put the links up and said ‘when you have a moment.’ I didn’t get 100% feedback like I had in the past, but I also feel like I got longer and more thoughtful responses.”

Students in Zeller’s class last year can confirm that by filling out the survey on their own time, they were able to conjure up more thoughtful responses.

“I really liked how Ms. Zeller didn’t make us fill out the form in class,” sophomore Emily Simon said, “because then I actually felt like I had something to say that was substantial rather than some of my other classes where I was forced to write something in class where I felt like I just had to praise the teacher because I wanted them to like me.”

Teacher-administered student feedback is not the only way in which student have been able to express their feelings towards a teacher or class. “Rate My Teacher” is a website which allows anonymous posts about teachers or faculty members belonging to any institution.

Alongside an open-ended comments section lies a specific rating system out of five stars. In this rating section, any individual can award another person as many stars as they desire for specific categories such as “knowledge,” similarly to how establishments are rated on Yelp.

Rate My Teacher was a popular phenomenon in 2016, but sprinkles of usage amongst Parker students still persist.

“It attracts people who either love you or hate you,” Zeller said. “The student is going out of his or her way to get on to the website and make a comment which takes time and effort.”

Zeller does not engage with the comments left on her Rate My Teacher profile. Zeller said, “Any feedback I get, it’s always a little hard to hear the critical feedback, but I do actually spend a lot of time thinking about how I can alter my teaching.”

Not every teacher cares for all types of feedback regardless of the platform. “I don’t find it helpful,” Wilson said. “It’s more of a place to vent, but people forget or may not even know that those comments are then associated with my name independent of me even looking at it.”

Teachers carry various opinions about Rate My Teacher, but many students agree that the website is not a place of true reflection, but rather humorous comments.  

“I don’t know anyone who actively uses Rate My Teacher,” junior Ava Sato said. “I think it’s because it was such a joke when we were a little younger to the point where people would leave pointless comments on teacher’s profiles as a dare or because they thought it would be funny. It was clear that people didn’t fully mean what they wrote and did it out of humor rather than actual concern for a teacher’s course.”

Simon said, “A common theme throughout social media has been hiding behind a screen to make comments which would normally be too scary to say to one’s face and I kind of feel like that’s what Rate My Teacher allows.”