Curriculum Committee Minutes - June 28, 2005

Present: Davidson, Caro, Rarey, Watson, Lou Ann, Duerson, Kaunitz, Duerson, Vicky, lou Ann, Bhavi, Gulig, Sumners, Harrell, Wallace, Kellner, Meuleman, Winter, Hatch, Layton, Rathe, Richard Holbert (Margie McGarva recording)

Guest: Lou Ritz (Neuroscience), Richard Holbert (Psychiatry)

Announcements:

It was announced that Bill Winter is the new course director for Pathology. Also, Paul Gulig is stepping down from the Curriculum Committee as he completes his term. Dr. Watson announced that the Carnegie Foundation has funded a study of models of professional education, including medical education and chose 5 medical schools that they believe are successful. They will be visiting us November 15-16, 2006.

Dr. Davidson began the meeting with an overview of the 2005 meetings of the Curriculum Committee.

Lou Ritz - Evaluating Student Performance Historically - Evaluation of clinical and pre-clinical performances in a course (the Harris Report).

Presentation to the Curriculum Committee on Student Evaluation

Suggested Policy by the Evaluation Subcommittee

Dr. Kellner stated that this is behavior is a continuum, and that the overall goal is to discriminate between students. We are giving feedback to clerkship directors about distribution of competency scores and working to improve the distribution of grades in psite of external factors related to residency sselection. Dr. Kellner stated that we could pay more attention to the distribution of competency scores. He stated that the Curriculum Committee should determine what performance is acceptable or unacceptable. Dr Romrell remarked that we have more students who fail in the 1st two years, which suggests a more appropriate use of the grading distribution. He also stated that faculty tend to give higher grades in the 4th year, and that we need to work with faculty so that they are knowledgeable about the best use of the competency scale. Dr. Caro suggested faculty get more training in these competencies.

Dr. Rathe stated the statistical consideration of MCQs. He proposed a procedure to correlate the difficulty index with point biserial data. He and Sue Wright are working on newer methods of analyzing the appropriateness of questions.

Dr. Watson suggested that the Committee consider updating the Harris report, as opposed to doing away with any grading suggestions. Dr. Davidson announced that he will be appointing a subcommittee to review the report and present it to the Committee in the fall.

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.