Type-based database design

Question

I want to rate (Very Good, Good, Medium, Bad...) 2 objects: Student and Teacher. Which design solution is better?

Solution 1:

Students(StudentID, Rating,...)

-----------------1--------Good-----

-----------------2--------Bad-----

-----------------3-----Very Good-----

---

Teachers(TeacherID, Rating,...)

-----------------1-----Very Good-----

-----------------2--------Bad-----

-----------------3--------Bad-----

Solution 2:

Students(StudentID, RatingTypeID,...)

-----------------1----------------2----------

-----------------2----------------1----------

-----------------3----------------3----------

---

Teachers(TeacherID, RatingTypeID,...)

-----------------1----------------1----------

-----------------2----------------1----------

-----------------3----------------3----------

---

RatingType(RatingID, RatingDescription,...)

-----------------1-------------Very Good---------

-----------------2---------------Good--------------

-----------------3----------------Bad---------------

---

If both of them are not good enough, can you give me some suggestions? Thanks!

Answer 1

Solution 2 is the best from those two, but if You want to have multiple votes in the course of your application's life, you should have a table where you identify what is the subject of the vote, and another where you store the votes:

Student:
   id
   name
   class
   ...

Teacher:
   id
   name
   subject
   ...

voterType
   id 
   description (student or teacher)

contest:
   id
   description (ex: 1st Semester 2013)

contestVotes:
   id
   contestId
   voterType (Teacher or Student)
   voterId
   ratingTypeId