Good Tests, But Room For Improvement
Little Hover Commission 2004
Regulation of Acupuncture: A Complementary Therapy Framework
In summary, the psychometrical and statistical comparison of the two examinations concluded the following:
Based on all of the documentation made available for this project, one cannot help but conclude that, despite some weaknesses or documentation failures here and there, both testing programs conscientiously strive toward excellence and have in fact produced very good products. The two testing programs have each captured a weighted composite of the tasks performed in professional practice, have generated items of high quality, and have determined passing criteria in accord with accepted practice.
Nonetheless, the documentation that was provided does allow this writer to distinguish somewhat between these two testing programs. For example, it was possible to determine that a comparable level of minimal competency was maintained between the two California exams administered in 2003. It also appears that there is no substantive difference in either the test statistics or the passing rate of the English, Mandarin, and Korean language groups on the California tests. These are no minor accomplishments and speak extremely well 51 for the quality of OER's testing program. Not enough information was supplied by the national group to perform a similar analysis on their tests.