Using End of Course Evaluations in High School
Designing Documents That are Objective and Part of Curriculum Goals
Dec 8, 2008
End of course student evaluations may serve beneficial purposes that address many areas of important feedback on the college level and may even be part of accreditation requirements, but attempts to use them on the high school level should be carefully scrutinized. Although it happens on all levels, high school students are far more prone to use such evaluation tools as methods to discredit teachers. Additionally, high school students are usually not mature enough to provide rich feedback on such specifics as text book selection and curriculum goals and objectives.
Developing a High School End of Course Evaluation
Meaningful end of course evaluations should provide feedback on individual performance from the student perspective. Appropriate questions should include:
- How much average daily time was spent on homework?
- Were the published objectives clear?
- What assignments were most helpful? Which were not?
- Were personal grade expectations met?
- Would the student recommend the course?
Each answer can include a brief comment section to provide elaboration. Evaluation questions that ask items like, “Was the teacher fair to all students?” or “Does the teacher respect and tolerate the opinions of all students?” may appear to elicit sincere responses, yet invariably give angry students an unnecessary vehicle to vent. Instead of the document providing measurable feedback based on objective observation, it becomes a weapon.
Keep the Evaluation Short and To the Point
Designing short evaluations imposes a greater degree of specificity to the document which means that questions asked will be far more objective and highlight important elements of a course. Rather than commenting on the personality of a teacher (which should be a part of regular departmental and administrative evaluations), the document should address course fundamentals: value and quality of labs, clearly published instructions, timely assessments, etc.
Individual columns should create ranges with terms like "very helpful" to "not very helpful" or "highly satisfied" to "not very satisfied at all." Generic terms such as "excellent," "average", and "poor" imply very little meaning and turn the vehicle into a sterile document.
Sharing the Results on a Broad Level
End of course evaluations should be tools used not only by individual teachers but by department heads, curriculum coordinators, and curriculum committees in order to assess curriculum reform and improvements broadly, if those concerns reflect universal feedback. Usually, the best methodology is to discard the highest and the lowest numbers and focus on majority observations.
Evaluations should never be used to browbeat teachers. Student evaluations should be designed to elicit positive changes and not produce hurtful scenarios. Serious instructional or classroom management problems can be addressed by internal evaluations and discussions and should not find a place on high school student course evaluations. It is in the nature of some students to use such open doors to intimidate teachers that may be perceived as unpopular.
How Important Are High School End of Course Evaluations?
Developing a system of student course evaluation must be a part of an overall effort to constantly improve curriculum goals and objectives. Setting up an independent evaluation program solely for the sake of image will ultimately defeat the integrity of the documents. If schools pursue a process of student course evaluation, extreme care must be given to the creation and facilitation of such documents to ensure the highest degree and standard of objectivity.
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