In a previous post (NCCA Accreditations | ARRT Volunteer Portal), you learned about the ARRT's accreditation through the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). Today, we continue our series exploring another standard that certification organizations must meet to earn accreditation.
How do we determine which content is relevant for an ARRT exam? Standard 14 specifically addresses this, and states, "The certification program must have a study that defines and analyzes descriptions of job-related elements linked to the purpose of the credential." The standard contains four essential elements, and ARRT takes specific steps to ensure we meet each one.
First, "The job analysis must lead to clearly delineated job-related elements (e.g., domains; tasks; competencies; and knowledge, skills, and abilities) that characterize proficient performance." ARRT derives the Examination Content Specifications and Task Inventories directly from our practice analysis process.
Second, "The program must conduct a job analysis in accordance with sound psychometric practice. If a program does not conduct a validation survey, it must provide sufficient justification for relying only on other data." We conduct validation surveys because they are best practice for the type of certifications we offer. If you want to learn more, one of our previous articles outlines how the task inventory and validation survey work together.
Third, "The report of the job analysis must describe the methods, results, and outcomes of the job analysis study, including supporting documentation for each element and sufficient information to justify the study's findings and conclusions. The program must make a summary of the study publicly available." We publish our practice analysis reports to the ARRT website here.
Finally, "The program must conduct a job analysis frequently enough to ensure that the content specifications accurately reflect current practice." ARRT has conducted regular practice analyses since 1980. Though the time between analyses varies by the needs of the discipline, we are currently conducting new practice analyses approximately every five years.
