RateMyTeachers

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**RateMyTeachers**

RateMyTeachers' School Page Screenshot
URL	http://www.ratemyteachers.com
Type of site	Review
Registration	yes
Owner
Created by

RateMyTeachers, also called RMT, is a review site used to rate elementary school, middle school and high school teachers' performance (and popularity) as a service to students, parents and the teachers themselves. Participants give numerical ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 in three different categories to their current or former elementary, middle and high school teachers. Visitors can also leave an optional brief comment based on their experience with the teacher. All comments are screened by over 7,000 volunteer moderators for appropriateness. The site is also managed by 9 Master Administrators, who control the operation of the entire site. Over one million teachers are graded on the website. The site was launched in August of 2001 by two people (one of whom has since passed away), as the sister site of RateMyProfessors.com.

The three categories used for rating teachers are Clarity, Helpfulness, and the most controversial; Easiness. The ratings for Clarity and Helpfulness are tallied and averaged, giving an average score for the teacher. The sites owners maintain that an "easy" score is not necessarily a good score and that teachers, students, and parents alike are interested in how the specific teacher is perceived. One good reason as to why "Easiness" is not a good basis for an opinion is because some students might find the subject that the teacher teaches substantially easier than other subjects, while others may have difficulty in the subject.

In addition to students being able to rate their teachers, parents have the option of rating the performance of their children's teachers on Expectations, Difficulty, and Respect. Though seldom used, this aspect of the site may be used by parents of future students, and can greatly influence their decisions. The website also has a list of schools (Wall of Shame) which have banned the site from being accessed from school computers, as well as a hall of fame which lists the most rated schools.

The website claims that over 70% of teachers are rated positively, 20% score a medium range, and 10% rate poorly. Nearly 1.2 million teachers are rated at 50,000 schools across the US and Canada.

RateMyTeachers currently serves students, parents and teaches in the United States, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and India.