Headlines:

• NOCA Hosts Legislative Summit in DC
• Assessing the Future, by Dave Meissner, Prometric
• Save the Date for NOCA's 2008 Annual Educational Conference
• Not a NOCA Member?  Join today and receive a discount on your 2009 membership dues!

NOCA Hosts Legislative Summit in DC

The National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA) held its first annual Legislative Summit: Workforce Solutions from the Certification Community on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 on Capitol Hill.

NOCA volunteer leaders and NOCA staff gathered in the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing room to host an educational event for policymakers and their staff. Elected officials and their policy staff stopped in to learn about NOCA, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and the importance of program accreditation and the value that occupational certification brings to America’s workforce. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Army and Navy’s Credentialing Opportunities OnLine (COOL) programs were also on hand to demonstrate their programs. “The NOCA leadership was honored to have the participation of Army/Navy COOL and DOL at our educational event on Capitol Hill,” said NOCA Board President Cyndi Miller Murphy. “It was a great opportunity for our organizations to come together in educating elected officials on the value of certification.”

After this successful educational event, NOCA’s volunteer leadership then attended meetings in Senate and House offices to discuss certification issues. The visits also provided an opportunity to advocate for the passage of the Post 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) designed to update veterans’ benefits to allow veterans to put their Montgomery G.I. benefits towards the costs associated with earning an occupational certification.  This legislation has since been passed, and signed by the President.  NOCA’s leadership also advocated for S. 2794, a bill introduced by Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI) designed to crack down on persons using fraudulent or misleading financial advisor credentials.

NOCA continues to work towards gaining more cosponsors for S. 2794, the Senior Investor Protection Act.  The Senior Investor Protection Act would direct the Attorney General to establish a program of grants to states to investigate and prosecute misleading and fraudulent marketing practices or develop educational materials and training aimed at reducing misleading and fraudulent marketing of financial products toward seniors.   The measure also recommends that states adopt the North American Securities Administrators Association’s (NASAA) Model Rule on the Use of Senior-Specific Certifications and Professional Designations for determining whether a designation being used is misleading. NOCA supports this recommendation.

NOCA volunteer leaders pose during the NOCA Capitol Hill education event with representatives of Army/Navy COOL and the Department of Labor.

Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) speaks with NOCA Executive Director Jim Kendzel, Government Relations Director Frank Moore and Board President Cyndi Miller Murphy during NOCA’s Capitol Hill education event.

Assessing the Future
By: Dave Meissner, Prometric

While we often think of tests as a relatively recent creation, perhaps the result of the industrial revolution, the notion of testing dates back nearly to the dawn of civilization. Those early tests measured practical skills and abilities and were often used as, what we in the 21st century would consider, pre-employment and placement exams. With the advent of a more diversified workforce came the introduction of guilds (associations) and apprenticeships that tightly coupled training and assessment into a structured delivery model. Role delineation in the military, public education and the explosion of specialized professions early in the last century all contributed to the rapid adoption of highly standardized multiple-choice exams. Multiple choice tests proved to be highly reliable, easily delivered and nearly universal in their applicability. And they remain so.

Fast forward to today…an increasingly global economy where people sometimes misrepresent themselves on resumes and in job interviews, falsifying or exaggerating their skills and abilities to gain a competitive edge. Couple this with the high degree of variability that exists in the quality of our education system, and you have an environment that exposes new vulnerabilities for credentialing agencies and society at large. It is little wonder then, that test sponsors are seeking greater confidence in their certification and licensure decisions. That search has focused on the concept of performance-based testing – measurement of an individual’s ability to demonstrate specific skills and/or to perform a series of assigned tasks. While hands-on practical exams, in which candidates are evaluated in the workplace, have been administered for centuries, today’s test sponsors need a delivery model that leverages the consistency, security and automation made possible with several emerging technologies.

Early adopters of performance-based testing have learned several important lessons that are worth consideration. Performance-based items are far more expensive and time-consuming to develop than their knowledge-based counterparts and while a single multiple-choice item might contribute to several test objectives, the individual tasks within a performance-based activity are typically much more narrowly defined. As a consequence, performance-based items are not as efficient from an item bank perspective. Also, because these activities are generally more time-consuming, fewer are administered within a test and they are therefore more memorable than traditional item types – raising item exposure and performance drift concerns.

Does all of this mean that performance-based testing is impractical for all but a few large, well-funded testing programs? Not at all! The answer lies in taking a holistic view toward what needs to be accomplished. The solution for many organizations is hybrid testing that leverages both performance-based scenarios and traditional objective test content to provide a more comprehensive gauge of a candidate’s true knowledge, skills and abilities. Not only does this approach preserve your organization’s existing item bank investment, it also substantially reduces the cost and level of effort associated with a move toward performance measurement.

The future of testing has arrived and a combination of innovative technology and a holistic view of the knowledge, skills and abilities required to measure competency will take us into the next generation of assessments. It’s reassuring to know that the fundamentals that we’ve all come to rely on are truly universal and continue to stand the test of time.

Save the Date for NOCA’s 2008 Annual Educational Conference!

Spanning the Credentialing Industry - Education. Innovation. Advocacy.
Hyatt Regency at Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, CA
November 19-22, 2008

The NOCA Annual Educational Conference is quickly approaching and staff and our Program Committee have been busy planning what is sure to be another successful conference!  Last year’s pre-conference sessions received tremendous feedback and we’re really putting forth extra effort this year to make them even more valuable. This year, we will have four Pre-Conference Workshops, two of which will be full-day sessions. Many members have approached us with a desire to bring their board members to the Annual Conference but not sure there was enough content geared toward them. In response to this demand, we are pleased to present the full day session Building Great Governance for Certifying Organizations. This is an ideal opportunity for you and your Chief Elected/Chief Staff Officers to learn leadership skills and network with leaders of other Certifying Agencies.

Last year, we were pleased to introduce Certification 101, which was attended by those new to certification or those looking to move up in their career. As a result, we are bringing it back this year as a morning workshop and introducing Certification 201 (NEW!) in the afternoon. If you attended 101 last year, you won’t want to miss 201!

Additionally, we have two afternoon workshops scheduled: Marketing/Media Workshop and NCCA Success Stories Workshop. All of these programs are still in development but we’ll keep you updated with speakers, workshop specifics and times! 

For all information Conference related, please click here.

Not a NOCA Member?  Join today and receive a discount on your 2009 membership dues!

Did you know that if you join NOCA now, your membership dues for 2009 are pro-rated?  That means you can start getting immediate access to all of NOCA's valuable online member resources, receive a reduced registration rate at the upcoming Annual Educational Conference, and get a discount on dues in 2009!  Why wait?  Become a member today!