Controversial Website Lets Students Grade Teachers

Glendale High School teacher Mary Furlong has been branded by the cyber sad face.

Actually, she’s been branded multiple times. More than 20 blue symbols representing faces with downturned mouths are posted under her name on the website RateMyTeachers.com, each supposedly representing a student’s judgment that she is a “poor” teacher.

On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 as the highest, students gave the French and Spanish teacher an average of 2 in overall quality. They submitted comments like: “terrible teacher ... yells too much ... she needs to chill,” and “probably the worst teacher at GHS.”

Other students were a bit more charitable. “She’s very nice,” one wrote, “but her class is very BORING.” She got seven yellow happy faces indicating she was a “good” teacher.

Furlong, 50, who has taught for nearly 30 years, said she used to think she was one of the more popular teachers at the school. But when she started logging onto the site about a year ago, she realized she was being vilified online. She suspects that one student has a vendetta and has weighed in multiple times.

“I stopped checking it, because it is hurtful,” she said.

RateMyTeachers.com was launched about two years ago. Among the co-founders were Bakersfield couple Nancy and Tim Davis, both educators. It was designed as a tool for teachers to see how they shaped up, and for students to let others know --anonymously -- whether an instructor was effective. More than 3 million ratings have been posted on about 591,000 teachers in 31,300 middle and high schools in the U.S. and Canada.

Teachers can be rated from 1 to 5 in each of three categories -- “easiness” “helpfulness” and “clarity” -- although only scores in the latter two are averaged to reach the “overall quality” rating. Some people who post on the site provide just the numerical ratings; others add their own comments.

Some teachers and administrators welcome the site as a form of constructive criticism. But others say it is unfair, mean and even libelous.

The critiques, submitted to the website through computerized forms, are screened by 2,300 student volunteers at various schools to eliminate profanity and other offensive comments. But there is no guarantee that youngsters aren’t mounting a campaign against a teacher or “voting” more than once. In fact, because the posted messages are anonymous, no one is verifying that the critics are actually students.

More than 600 campuses have blocked access to the site on school computers.

Alex Wohl, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, said teachers should not be evaluated through an online forum “that allows for personal comments that can lead to abuse.”

“Unfortunately, in the K-12 arena, a lot of those [websites] are misused,” he said. “On the Internet, like any good forum where free speech is robust, you run the danger of having it being slanted in one side or the other.”

Co-founder Nancy Davis said the site is not out to bash teachers.

“Everyone says, ‘How can students evaluate teachers? This should be done by administrators.’ But administrators spend 10 minutes every six months in class,” Davis said. “Students are there every day. They know who is good and who is not good, who inspires them and who discourages them.”

In the last year, teen websites like schoolscandals.com, an online gossip page where students posted crude messages, have been shut down after being bombarded with criticism from parents, students and administrators that they were irresponsible and cruel.

But Davis insists that RateMyTeachers.com is reputable, because it deletes all vulgarity, profanity, comments about personal appearance, physical disabilities or a teacher’s personal life, and name-calling. Although some educators have threatened to sue the site, no lawsuits have been filed, Davis said.

The site costs about $500 a month to operate, including the server and maintenance, Davis said. For the last two years, such costs have come out of the founders’ pockets, she said. But in recent months, the site has started earning a small profit from advertisers such as an online driving school, she added.

Jeff Bye, 17, a junior at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, helps screen student postings about teachers from his campus. He approves postings about whether teachers lecture too much or whether their lessons match what is on the tests. Bye also uses the site to post notes about his own experiences with teachers.

Bye said anonymity is key. Otherwise, students would not be able to state their opinions so freely, he said.

“Teachers find out if you complain about them or talk to administrators about them,” which sometimes leads to grades “mysteriously” being lowered, he said.

Michael David, 17, a senior at Van Nuys High School, said the site serves an important purpose, because otherwise, “we feel like we don’t have a voice.”

“I think it’s a tool,” he said. “I think it’s really good for high school students to see what their teachers have to offer them.”

David said he has posted positive comments about teachers online, like: “Furhman was a great teacher! Thanks to her, I’m involved in Science Bowl, and all of the Earth Science stuff has been immeasurably beneficial to Science Bowl.”

The site can help teachers, he said, adding, “If they’re hurt by it, instead of shunning the site, they can work to improve.” Arcadia High School photography teacher Robert Ilgenfritz, 45, has only smiley faces under his name. Students have posted notes such as: “coolest teacher at AHS! Very spiritual and interesting ... fun to talk to.”

Ilgenfritz said he is flattered by the compliments, especially because he avoids talking down to students or being too stern. But he tries not to take them too seriously.

“It’s a two-sided sword,” he said. “Some people could argue that if the kids like you too much, then you’re too easy on them.”

He added that he has the advantage of teaching an elective that most students consider fun. Instructors who teach Advanced Placement classes or more complicated subjects may get lower ratings because they have to be tougher on students, he said.

Furlong of Glendale High said she has looked up comments about her colleagues and noticed that those who teach students at higher grade levels usually receive higher ratings in the postings, which often say “intelligent things.”

“Now I only have all ninth-graders, the toughest,” she said. “They are really immature kids who haven’t even learned to sit still yet.” It’s hard, she said, because teaching is “my whole life.” This year is more stressful than ever, she said, because she has taken on more classes with fewer resources because of budget cuts. “It’s not worth all the stress and negative comments,” she said.