It has been widely reported by faculty that personal response devices (or “clickers”) improve student engagement in the classroom. However, these observations are generally anecdotal, without formal assessment. An attempt was made to quantify this effect. Clickers have been used in a large-enrollment general chemistry class and in upper-level chemistry courses. Student engagement was assessed with several instruments in these classes. A survey was distributed at the start and end of the term in which students reported the percentage of class time they spent at various levels of engagement. Specific questions were added to the end-of-term course evaluations to determine the effectiveness of the clickers. Finally, student usage of the clickers was analyzed over the course of each term. While student feedback about the clickers was positive and exam grades were higher for students who used the clickers on a consistent basis, the student engagement survey generally showed only minimal, if any, increase in engagement in sections where clickers were used.