Inside Four Walls: Ratemyteachers.com...the CA Bill

I have already talked about the lunacy that is ratemyteachers.com, and you can re-read it if you want to, but the fact they are considering a similar idea for all high school teachers is ridiculous.

Seems that our state legislature can't come to an agreement on a budget, but they did vote for SB 1422 in both houses. So it's off to Schwarzenegger for his signature or veto.

So what does it do? Well if you remember doing evaluations for professors in college then it's basically the same thing.

So why complain? Well if you think that high school students can evaluate a teacher without bias from their grade then you probably aren't a teacher. Most students will either say "the teacher sucks" because they didn't get the grade they want or say "they are the best" because it was an easy class and an easy A.

And...? I'm sorry, but I went to school for at least 6 more years than my students, how do they know what to look for when evaluating a teacher. It's not based on method, but emotion and opinion.

And...? In times when we are struggling with balancing district budgets should we even consider something that is going to cost even more to print up these forms?

But only the teachers will see them. For now. I can actually see administrators looking at these with the teachers and indirectly using them in their evaluations.

The one thing that pissed me off more than anything on this was this line;

High school teachers would decide whether to distribute such annual surveys to their students, whose responses would be confidential, seen only by the affected teacher, and not become a part of any personnel record.

Put simply, lousy teachers could just say no.

I am not a lousy teacher and I wouldn't pass these out. If I did, it wouldn't be used seriously on my part. Maybe after state testing when we are "taking a break" from the rat race that is the CSTs.

There is an all out attack on teachers right now. If you don't believe me, then you are living in a dream world. The media, parents, and administrators have found a way to divert any attention from themselves and place it on us, the teachers. I am blessed to come from a school where the administrators back the teachers as long as they have "ammunition". But the media has launched an all out attack saying we are to blame for everything. The parents will scream just as loud because it takes away any sort of accountability they have. Dark times my friends.