Written By: Chaim Sciamma

Every semester, RCDS students voice strong opinions about their classes. Criticisms range from whether a teacher explained concepts clearly, to how reasonable the workload was, to if course materials actually helped them learn. Some students believe the school should make an effort to formally collect these opinions. Many colleges and high schools use evaluation forms to guide curriculum decisions and help students choose courses, sometimes using public systems like Rate My Professors and other times via private surveys. These evaluations come with valid concerns about bias and fairness. With students and faculty alike pushing for schoolwide course evaluations, it’s worth weighing the benefits and drawbacks.

One of the strongest arguments for evaluations is giving students a structured way to voice their concerns with their classes. Students are in a position to recognize issues that can go unnoticed by department heads, such as unmanageable workloads or confusing topics. An anonymous senior spoke on the lack of transparency, remarking, “There’s not a huge level of communication on both sides.” Well-designed evaluations can break that communication barrier, allowing teachers to more accurately address issues in their classes. “There’s no accountability with no communication,” argued one anonymous junior, “but if all the students are talking about it, there’s a lot more pressure for change.” 

Though students could leave teacher reviews on Rate My Professors, the school would not consider them legitimate or valuable criticism. Only a system for course evaluation coordinated and moderated by the school would lead to meaningful change.

When teachers receive thoughtful, anonymous student feedback, they can make these meaningful changes to their courses. Mr. Hirsch, Upper School Biology and Big History teacher, shared, “I’m pretty pro having course evaluations, and I’ve definitely changed types of assessment and what I’ve focused on as a result of student feedback.” Speaking on the possible drawbacks, he maintained, “Though it’s absolutely possible to have bad faith surveys, in order to make those decisions on changes in the course, to see what’s working and what’s not, you need a robust data set.”

Bias is a serious challenge when considering a school-wide course evaluation system. Reviews can be influenced by factors unrelated to teaching quality, such as the subject’s difficulty level. When feedback is unmoderated, it can become a place for students to vent frustration rather than offer genuine criticism. Teachers can then be judged by anonymous reviews that focus on personality or grading ease rather than teaching skill. Though these concerns do not discredit course evaluations, they do highlight how carefully they must be designed.

If evaluations are to be adopted by the school, it is worth asking if they should be made available to the student body or kept within departments. Mr. Cavanaugh, longtime Upper School Spanish teacher at RCDS, suggested that students’ feedback could play a greater role in course offerings. “Perhaps there is a way to cull student info about what specific skills they seek and also […] what specific skills they actually see developing as a result of their current work in each course,” said Mr. Cavanaugh. “This could be very helpful in the process of designing new courses and fine-tuning current ones.” Mr. Cavanaugh also brought up potential issues, adding, “Honest feedback […] informs the ever-evolving list of best practices for me as a teacher[…]. Significant context might be lost if student-generated evaluations of teachers were to be shared outside of the individual student-teacher, teacher-department chair loops.” 

On whether or not teachers were currently taking student feedback into account, one anonymous senior said, “I feel like the teachers at RCDS care, but I haven’t seen any change, and that’s because there hasn’t really been any change.” When asked if sharing reviews with the whole student body could elicit more change, the senior cautioned, “There should be course evaluations, but if the teacher knows what to correct, it doesn’t need to be public.” One anonymous junior shared, “I did a form once for an English class, but it didn’t really do anything. Maybe the students need to lead this and present options to the administration office.”

Speaking on possible drawbacks of evaluations, Mr. Hirsch noted that some transparency should be encouraged but also underscored differences between evaluation systems in college and high school. “In college, there’s an element of choice,” said Mr. Hirsch. “In high school, you don’t have a lot of choice. If you hate history, you still have to take it, and that’s going to affect what that student says about their teacher.”

If our school adopts evaluation forms, they should be guided by clear goals and developed with both faculty and student input. If the school allows students to access course evaluations, they should be released with context, moderation, and protections for faculty to avoid the dangers of anonymous online platforms. Evaluation forms are not a perfect solution, but with a thoughtful structure and appropriate safeguards, our school can incorporate evaluations that support learning and strengthen faculty-student communication at RCDS.