By Victor Skinner
EAGnews.org

HOUSTON – Houston school officials are considering a proposal to incorporate student surveys into teacher evaluations, but the local teachers union doesn’t like the idea.

District officials sent their own survey to teachers in the Houston Independent School District recently to gauge their thoughts on incorporating student surveys into teacher evaluations, but haven’t proposed the idea to the school board, My Fox Houston reports.

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“I think it’s a valuable piece of data to use to look at how our teachers are doing,” Bob Sanborn, spokesman for the advocacy group Children at Risk, told the television station. “You have to make sure you are not getting rid of those teachers that are hardnosed about learning, but are not necessarily popular with the kids.”

Houston Federation of Teachers President Gayle Fallon isn’t keen on the idea.

“There are some very effective teachers who are not always the most popular teachers in the schools. Those surveys will amount to very little more than a popularity contest,” she told Fox. “What are you going to do with a class of middle school students … who decide they are just going to be vindictive?”

We believe Fallon’s concern is valid, but school officials shouldn’t dismiss the student survey idea entirely. School officials could learn a lot about their teaching staff through anonymous student comments, but incorporating the data into teacher evaluations could be tricky.

It stands to reason that teachers who engage and encourage students would receive positive feedback on their performance. The surveys could also be one way for students to alert officials about teachers who may be doing things they shouldn’t.

But basing 30 percent of a teacher’s evaluation on the opinions of teenagers seems a bit excessive.

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The television station asked a few students about the idea, and they seemed to like it.

“That is a very good idea,” Christian Hill, student at Park Elementary, told Fox. “When you tell your teacher they did a good job it makes them kind of happy and makes them not give up on teaching us and stuff.”

Turner Middle School student Harden Williams thinks the surveys could go either way.

“I would speak my mind toward what I think about the teacher,” Williams said, but added “some of the kids at my school don’t care about school, so maybe they wouldn’t take it seriously and make a joke out of it.”