The validity and reliability of a clinical performance rating scale

Rating scales are standard tools for evaluating clinical performance in medicine; however, in dentistry they appear to be used solely to evaluate technical skills. A pretest of three performance scales did not reveal the superiority of any one scale, though faculty clearly preferred a 20-item, six-point Likert scale that rated personal, interpersonal, and professional qualities. Directors and co-directors of six group clinics subsequently rated performance of two classes of seniors and one class of juniors. Interrater reliabilities, ranging from .62 to .83 across rater pairs, were superior to reliabilities reported in medical education studies. Although technique grades, preclinical GPA, and performance ratings differentiated students who completed clinical requirements on time (n = 302) from those who did not (n = 83), performance ratings added information about competence that was not reflected in GPA and technique grades. The usefulness of a rating scale appears to be in its potential for giving students feedback and for evaluating program effectiveness.