RateMyTeachers.com has established itself in classrooms across North America as a useful resource for students, teachers, and parents alike. Today marks the official launch of RateMyTeachers in the Australia and New Zealand. The site is an innovative idea, allowing students to share opinions and grade their teachers.
RateMyTeachers.com currently boasts 9.3 million teacher ratings, over 1.2 million teachers, and is currently in use at more than 51,000 middle schools and high schools across the United States and Canada. The site has been in operation since August 2001 and has quickly spread across North America through word of mouth. Each year, more than three million students log in to RateMyTeachers to grade and review their teachers.
Joel Gordon, an English teacher at Amsterdam High School, New York believes RateMyTeachers "enfranchises our kids, gives voice to their long-stifled expressions in a subject area in which they have loads of experience and are eminently qualified to speak. These statistics are timely, relevant and 99% honest.”
With the assistance of over 5000 student administrators, RateMyTeachers reviews every teacher rating before it is posted to the website. Any malicious or vulgar postings are removed. If a teacher is at odds with any rating, that person can easily flag the rating and comment for a second review. The majority of ratings are positive, with students celebrating their teachers.
Site co-founder Michael Hussey explains the goal of the site. "Students have a keen interest in rating their teachers’ performance in the classroom. The growth of the site in the US and Canada is a testament to students desires to take an active role in improving the quality of their education. We are encouraging students to really own their educations; to demand the best of themselves and their educators."
