Teaching Profession

Student Surveys vs. Customer Service

By Liana Loewus — February 26, 2013 1 min read
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Here’s an interesting nugget from an op-ed about teacher evaluations on TakePart, a website focused on social-justice issues (it’s connected with Participant Media, the production company behind the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”). Jatish Marsh, a middle school health teacher in Georgia, explains that her state, like many others, is using student surveys as part of the teacher-evaluation process, a fact that she says she “accept[s].” But she does have a problem with how the process has been communicated to teachers. She writes:

I have no idea what survey questions my students will be asked. When I call into various customer service call centers, agents are aware I may participate in a survey after my call and ask if they have met various needs. Shouldn't teachers be given the same consideration?

Seems a reasonable-enough request. Then again, would telling teachers exactly what their students will be asked create an incentive for prepping kids’ responses? For those teachers in other places that are doing student surveys—what’s the process like at your school?

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A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.