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External Peer Review of Teaching

How to Submit a Promotion Packet for Review:

WHO SHOULD CONSIDER SUBMITTING A PROMOTION PACKET?

  • Our focus at this point is West Region CVM Consortium faculty who have “significant” teaching responsibilities. This includes teaching in classroom, laboratory, small groups, and/or clinical settings.
  • “Significant” implies that an applicant invests 40% or more of their professional effort in the teaching mission of their college OR any faculty member who considers teaching an essential component of their professional identity.
  • Other professional activities that apply include engagement in educational leadership, student advising, development of new educational programs, curriculum revision, and/or the scholarship of teaching & learning.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT?

  • The RTA’s External Peer Review of Teaching (EPRT) Working Group will conduct an evidence-based review of your promotion dossier and write an external review letter.
  • This letter will be sent to your department chair (or chair of your promotion committee) to be added to the materials reviewed by your department, college, and university. It will thereby serve as ONE of the external letters your institution will consider as part of your promotion review.
  • The remaining external review letters will come from the usual sources as recommended or required at your institution.
  • If you are looking for names of additional individual reviewers who might best understand your responsibilities and the role of teaching, please contact the Chair of the RTA EPRT Working Group, or see your local representative of the group. Members of the EPRT are listed at the bottom of the EPRT home page.

HOW THE PROCESS WILL WORK

  • Please use the format prescribed in the Applicant Toolbox.
    If your institution mandates a fixed CV or promotion packet format, place the RTA’s EPRT documents into your APPENDIX. Then, to the degree possible, make sure the appendix and its contents are provided to all reviewers, both external and internal. Your promotion packet should be considered a persuasive document, like a grant proposal. Be sure it adequately showcases your activities and achievements.
  • Coaching:
    Consult with the local members of the RTA EPRT group for general and specific advice on preparing your promotion documents for submission. These individuals will NOT be part of the review process due to the potential conflict of interest. However, they can offer good advice to strengthen your promotion packet.

QUICK TIPS:

  • Plan ahead so that there is plenty of time to get your materials submitted and reviewed!
  • Consider acquiring a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro to use as an easy way to assemble your document. It provides a simple way to combine PDF and Word docs into single documents.
  • See recommendations in Applicant Toolbox. Best practice is likely to submit 4 PDF documents.
      • 1. Cover section – alternatively can be added to front of CV and/or Teaching Portfolio
        2. Curriculum Vitae – expanded (if allowable) to an Educator’s CV that more completely documents your teaching
        3. Teaching Portfolio (reflective document) – 16 pages maximum, templated
        4. Appendix – supporting materials: If your institution mandates a particular fixed format, you will place all the RTA EPRT documents in your appendix. Otherwise, the appendix will serve as a place to insert a limited number of carefully chosen supporting. Again, make sure these materials are provided to external reviewers. However, beware of filling the appendix with extraneous materials that add length but not substance.
  • Consider a Table of Contents for each section and embedded hyperlinks that allow the reviewer to quick move to a specific section within each document.

PURPOSE:  The RTA’s Educator’s Promotion Packet guidelines and format are intended to (a) to provide an evidence-based dossier template for faculty with significant teaching and/or educational leadership responsibilities, so that (b) promotion packets might be more fairly and rigorously reviewed – including, ideally, by qualified external reviewers.  The format represents an evidence-based approach, and has been modified from the AAMC Toolbox for Medical Educators


DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING A PROMOTION

  • The request for review should be submitted by your dean, department chair, or chair of your P&T committee (whoever normally solicits external review letters – i.e. the “submitting authority”).
  • Your local liaison on the RTA’s EPRT committee can also advise and assist with the submission process, but will not participate in the review.
  • The emailed letter of request should be submitted to the Chair of the EPRT committee – copied to Rachel Halsey (r.halsey@wsu.edu) and at least one member of the EPRT committee at your institution.
  • As soon as the EPRT chair responds with confirmation that the committee can review your packet, the person requesting the external review letter should submit the promotion packet documents.
  • BACKUP: The submitting authority should follow up if receipt of the promotion packet is not confirmed by email within 10 working days.

The emailed request for external review should include –

  • the name and address of the institutional official to whom the external peer review letter should be addressed.
  • the DEADLINE for receipt of the external review letter (materials must be submitted for review at least 60 days prior to this date)
  • the name of a local EPRT committee member who has agreed to serve as a local liaison for the review request (this person will NOT be involved in the review)