THE RELIABILITY OF MEDICAL-STUDENT RATINGS OF CLINICAL TEACHING

This study estimated the interrater reliability of medical student eva luations of clinical teaching. Data consisted of 1,570 ratings evaluat ing 147 faculty over a 4-year period in a 3rd-year internal medicine c lerkship. The number of ratings a typical faculty member receives in a year was also calculated and used to extrapolate the standard error o f measurement for data typically available to evaluate faculty at diff erent time intervals. The data available to evaluate a faculty member after I year was not adequate, but improved substanially at the 5- to 7-year mark, when a faculty member is typically evaluated for promotio n and tenure.