Teacher rating site survives

According to this report in The Times, the German Federal Court of Justice has dismissed a claim by a woman who argued that her rights were infringed by pupils who gave her bad grades on a popular German teacher rating website. The Court said pupils had a right to offer an opinion as long as they did not hinder her professionally.

This is something of a hot topic in the education sector. Ratemyteachers.com  is a popular teacher rating site in the US, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It allows students to rate teachers for clarity, helpfulness and "easiness", and to post comments. These range from the highly complimentary to the insulting and abusive. The Hall of Fame page for New Zealand has a long list of well known schools, containing average teacher ratings.

Not surprisingly, unions tend to be against teacher rating sites. They say teachers have a right to be assessed only by their superiors, and that publishing their names breaches privacy law. However, freedom of expression trumped these arguments in the German case.

While it's easy to sympathise with teachers, who have a difficult enough job as it is, it's hard to see a similar case succeeding here. Students have always talked publicly about their teachers, and all these sites do in effect is make it easier for others to access these opinions (and contribute their own).

A further point is that teachers' performance is unlikely to be assessed by schools with reference to information posted on these sites. From an employment law point of view, that would be problematic. After all, the ability to rate anonymously could lead to multiple ratings by the same person, as well as ratings by people with no connection to the school or teacher concerned.

The other point is that this sort of site can affect a teacher's chances of moving schools. However, there is little evidence about the extent to which schools rely on this sort of information in the recruitment context.

Once a teacher gets a job, they are in a stronger position. Any school wanting to performance manage a teacher who is not doing a good job will need to do so in the conventional way - by reference to objective evidence about performance, and using input from colleagues and visiting ERO review officers (and students and parents, if there is a separate mechanism for taking into account their views). Relying on a site like this is asking for trouble.

 

Greg Cain

Greg Cain is an employment lawyer at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.

 

 

Photo: Hawkes Bay Today