Our community college strongly urges students to fill out online surveys ranking our teachers 1-5 in about 8 categories, with a box to leave further comments. The word from admin has always been that the teachers don't get to see the surveys until the current term ends and then the responses are anonymous. Silly me, I guess, to believe that and be honest on a survey...
One of the teachers I had last term actually called off the names of those who had turned in the survey while we were finishing up her class, reminding us that the admin uses the surveys in considering teacher retention, pay and purchase of classroom materials. So there goes the idea of "not seeing survey until term ends" and "anonymous." Fortunately she was a teacher I regarded highly. When I refer to "being honest" on a survey prior to this one, let me say that I would never say something cruel but would offer a constructive comment on a point where I thought a teacher could improve.
How would you feel about this? Would you be disturbed about being misled about how the surveys are released to teachers?
