High schools should add students to the teacher evaluation system.

I'll attack my opponent's initial arguments this round."Students have many different ranges of what they expect in a teacher." I would agree with this point. However, high schools generally offer different class options for students. For example, a student can sign up for an on-level class, a pre-AP class, or an AP class in most high schools. Students signing up for an on-level class will have similar expectations, and students signing up for an AP class will also have similar expectations. Also, teacher evaluations done by students are not simply a form where students talk about their opinions. Students will answer questions such as (1)..."Does your teacher treat you fairly/with respect?.""Does your teacher answer your questions well.""Is your teacher consistent with how he/she relates to you with an administrator present vs. without." (this one is especially important because it will show if administrator evaluations are actually working) "Do you behave in class?" This is also important, because if a student admits they did misbehave in class, the administration would know that the teacher was justified in punishing the student in an appropriate way."How could you and/or the class have acted differently in order to help the teacher do his/her job more effectively?"The point I aim to prove with these example questions is that student's evaluations of teachers are not going to be in the form of a sheet where students simply write what they think. Evaluation forms will ask constructive questions that allow the student to give feedback, while minimizing bias. Of course, there is a spot where the student can talk about their opinion, but that is not all that goes in to the evaluation.My opponent ends this argument by showing some evidence that proves students all want something different from a teacher. Look to the fact that students can sign up for classes of different levels meaning that while their expectations will differ slightly, each level will have somewhat similar expectations. I wasn't able to find the study my opponent used when looking at their link because they simply linked the main website. I am assuming this study was compiled of randomly selected students, meaning that they will naturally all have different expectations because they all signed up for different types of classes. Moreover, since the evaluations are generally in the form of questionnaires, they will be more accurate."There need to be qualifications for students who have the right standard for evaluating the teachers."Students spend more time with their teachers than anyone else. This is what makes them qualified. They don't need training to answer the basic questions I listed above, or to give their opinion on the teacher's teaching. Also, introducing student evaluations would not mean getting rid of test score and administrator evaluations. Both are important, but without student evaluations, the whole system of assessing teachers is weak. My opponent notes that students do not know what a qualified teacher is. I'll get into this point when I provide evidence to counter their next argument."A system with students added would not be accurate (bias)."I have two pieces of evidence that prove this point to be completely untrue.Firstly there is the evidence I showed in the first round from The Atlantic. This study showed that teachers who were positively evaluated by students were able to get in six more months of teaching than teachers who had poor ratings. The article notes, "Students were better than trained adult observers at evaluating teachers." Secondly, according to Springer, "In general the size of the association is small but not unimportant. A student’s overall grade-point average appears to have little or no relationship to teacher or course evaluation." This shows that students who give a negative review of their teachers are generally not “punishing” their teacher for giving them a bad grade. A student’s grade does not always affect their opinion of their teacher.These two pieces of evidence prove that students know what a qualified teacher is, and they are usually fair when it comes to assessing the abilities of their teachers, making their evaluations accurate."It is inevitable that students will expect something that the teacher will not meet."I agree. Realistically, a teacher cannot meet some of their student's expectations. However, this actually doesn't prove student evaluations to be a negative thing. If teachers see that they are doing something the majority of the class dislikes, they can try to change it. This gives the teacher at least an idea of their successes and failures. Of course, if a student demands something unrealistic, the teacher will not be expected to meet it. Students benefit as well, because they will at least feel like they have a say in what their teachers do."The current system is the most effective way to evaluate teachers."The current system has some positive aspects, but as I have said before, it is not close to enough. Test scores show the motivation of students, not the abilities of teachers. My opponent said, "Since teachers cannot control each student's score on a standardized test, this is a reliable way of evaluating teachers." This is exactly what renders test scores a weak method of teacher evaluations. Teachers have little control over how their students do; thus, this is not the best way to assess a teachers abilities. As for administrator evaluations, I've showed they can be inaccurate simply because teachers can easily teach better quality lessons around administrators. Look at my pieces of evidence (2) and (3). These prove that student evaluations are accurate. Therefore, they should be added to the current evaluation system.(1) http://neatoday.org...(2) http://www.theatlantic.com... (3) http://link.springer.com...