The proposed focus session explores how the original intended purpose of student evaluation of teaching (SET) differs from current use, and how SET can be updated for better alignment. The original purpose of SET was to inform faculty about strengths and weaknesses of instructional practices. However, a study by Hiltner and Loyland (1998), reports that nearly two-thirds of faculty do not believe SET is capable of discriminating between effective and ineffective teaching. The issue is compounded by the fact that students, who are untrained and often subjective evaluators, are given little instruction on effective evaluation and full impact of SET. SET use has expanded to include administrative decisions. The impact of SET is highlighted by White et al.'s report (2014) that teaching ranked first when making decisions related to tenure, salary and promotion, and administrators rank student ratings first in importance in evaluation of teaching. As a result, faculty may be reluctant to try innovative methods that may be negatively perceived by students. SET composition and delivery have not evolved to align with current use. SET questions and student instructions designed to align with use would be beneficial to students, and to the faculty and administrators who use SET to make important decisions. It is time to re-think SET, and bring faculty, administrators, and assessment specialists into the conversation to determine best practice in delivery and utilization of SET.
 

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