Some teachers at De Anza feel underpaid and under appreciated. Some students however, feel some teachers are just under qualified. Students expect quality education when they come to college. Anything less angers them.

Unfortunately, we are not aware of what is going on educationally because we, as students, are not conducting teacher evaluations. Administration, does, however conduct teacher evaluations. However, these evaluations are not available to us.

In previous years, the student government conducted scientific research in which a committee visited classes and had students fill out anonymous teacher evaluations with the permission of the teachers. Afterward, any student who wished to see the evaluations could.

Without an evaluation, students should never infer that superb teaching is taking place. That is, don’t expect what you don’t inspect. Nor should we shape an opinion of a teacher’s skills by listening to bits and pieces of information from parents, students and other teachers. The student government owes it to the students and especially the faculty to provide a service that will allow the college to know the caliber of instructional abilities in the classroom.

The following are reasons for conducting teacher evaluations; however De Anza does not accomplish this important function.

-To know what is going on in the classroom

-To determine the teacher’s abilities

-To measure the teacher’s effectiveness

-To make the teacher accountable

-To measure progress or regression

-To foster competency in the teacher

-To lay groundwork for removing the incompetent

-To emphasize a particular education thrust or direction

-To correct a problem

There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that administration should know the quality of education taking place in the school.

Since one recognizes the need, then one must pose the question: “Why don’t we, as students, evaluate our own faculty?” Probably the reason would be lack of time. With myriad duties, teacher assessment is far down the list. There is no easy solution of being overworked. We must realize that an assumption of instructional quality can lead to a decline in the caliber of the overall educational program. Perhaps, evaluations should take a higher priority in the student government’s time.