Revenge ruins RateMyTeacher’s reliability

On a standard Formspring profile read the words “Ask me anything” in large sans-serif letters. A website on which students can ask their peers anonymous questions, Formspring provides an infamous medium for cyberbullying.

Through the anonymous nature of the website, certain profiles contain questions like “Why don’t you get some actual friends?” and “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it.” These statements, however, stem from personal disputes between people, bringing their validity into question.

The website RateMyTeachers (RMT), too, offers opportunities for anonymous criticism; however, teachers instead of students face these hateful words. On RMT, students assess their teachers based on difficulty, helpfulness, clarity and popularity on a scale of 1 to 5. Unfortunately, resentment and bias have corrupted the accuracy of the website, rendering it solely useful as a place for students to rant about their past mishaps.

Teacher Kathy Nakamatsu has noticed an ominous trend to her ratings and those of her fellow teachers. She asserts that negative ratings tend to emerge when she decides against changing grades. One time, Nakamatsu found five identical one-star ratings shortly after refusing to round up a student’s final grade.

The abundance of these frequently unreasonable comments results from the site’s anonymity factor. On any website with nameless commenting or critiquing functions—from Formspring to restaurant review sites like Yelp—people use more liberty in their posts. They feel they can get away with offenses that would otherwise not be pardoned in “real” life. Most people would not make such caustic comments to another person’s face.

The lack of control a teacher has over his or her “account” also presents an issue. Formspring users may disable their accounts if they desire to do so; on the other hand, teachers cannot regulate their RMT profiles. Their ratings must stay online, for everyone on the Internet to see and judge.

RMT, like Wikipedia, cannot be used as an accurate source because anyone can make edits. If anything, RMT is less reliable due to the particularly subjective nature of its rating system. Additionally, students can submit ratings at any time during their experiences with their teachers. Early on, they may only have an incomplete impression of their teachers; what a student thinks partially through the school year will not necessarily represent his or her thoughts after the nine-month-long course ends.

Certain schools have banned RMT on their school networks. The efficacy of this tactic, though, is debatable. Blocking Facebook did little at Saratoga High; people either found ways to bypass the block or just used the site at home. RMT also cannot be shut down, as the website allows students to exercise their First Amendment rights.

Students and teachers should simply recognize RMT as an unreliable reference tool. RMT has grown into a Formspring-esque breeding ground of caustic, often irrational criticism. Personal indignation skews the rating system and makes it difficult for students to separate honest analysis from vengeful retribution.