A Guide for Making Valid Interpretations of Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) Results

Abstract

Student evaluations of teaching (SETs) are conducted in virtually every veterinary medical school in the world. Results of these evaluations are typically used to evaluate faculty performance and often serve as the primary basis for promotion and tenure decisions. However, given the high-stakes nature of these evaluations, it is critical that stakeholders (faculty, curriculum committees, department chairs, deans, etc.) be able to identify the extent to which the scores are likely to be valid or not. Thus, the purpose of this article was to develop a guide for faculty and administrators to assess the interpretative validity of SET scores given an array of sample size, response rate, and score standard deviation possibilities.