1.  Online CCAT Available Soon

The first Web-based Chiropractic College Assessment Test (CCAT) will be launched in September 2007 on the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) Web site for individuals who are interested in a health-related career.

The NBCE specifically designed the assessment as a tool for the student to use in conjunction with academic counseling to make proactive academic or remedial decisions. The CCAT is an optional and comprehensive tool for a prospective student’s self-assessment; the results are highly correlated with success in chiropractic college.

On June 23-25, the National Board launched CCAT to the American School Counselors Association (ASCA) at its annual convention in Denver. The convention hosted 2,100 counselors from across the United States. NBCE District II Director Dr. Donna Craft and the NBCE Professional Relations and Communications Department introduced counselors to the CCAT exam, describing its use in counseling students who have an interest in chiropractic or other allied health careers.

The CCAT:

• Is optional; it is useful to assess a student’s academic preparation for a chiropractic college curriculum.
• Provides a tool for students and academic counselors in making proactive academic decisions or suggesting areas for further study.
• Measures the prospective student’s ability in problem-solving skills, mathematics (quantitative reasoning skills), biology, chemistry and physics.
• Correlates highly with success in chiropractic college.
• Is a Web-based, multiple-choice examination, available at www.ncbe.org/ccat.
• Requires approximately one and one half hours to complete.
• Provides examinees the option to request that their scores be sent to the chiropractic colleges of their choice.

The CCAT is for:

• Those who are considering a career in chiropractic.
• Those who want to know if they have the problem-solving and reasoning skills necessary for successful completion of a rigorous scientific curriculum.
• Those who want to know if there is a particular subject that requires additional preparation.
• Those who would like an assessment that highly correlates with successful completion of chiropractic college.
• Those who would like an assessment before committing to substantial time and student loan obligations.

When to take the CCAT:

• When a prospective student is considering a career in a health care profession and wants to assess his/her aptitude and/or academic preparation.
• When a prospective student decides that chiropractic is his/her career choice and is completing prerequisites prior to applying to chiropractic college.
• When a prospective student applies or has been accepted to a chiropractic college and has not yet completed his/her first academic term.

2. Part III and Part IV Evolution

The National Board of Chiropractic Examiners (NBCE) finds it necessary to continually review and update exams as changes take place in testing and scoring methods, as technology offers opportunities to provide better content in exams, and as curricula in chiropractic colleges change to respond to advances in diagnostic and treatment techniques.

In May, the Parts III and IV Exam Committee (whose members are Dr. Richard Cole and Dr. Oliver Smith, co-chairs, Dr. Donna Craft, Dr. Robin Lecy, and Dr. Mary-Ellen Rada) recommended to the NBCE Board that staff pursue a new format of questioning directed towards testing at a higher level of understanding versus the traditional recall configuration. That initiative will be furthered on September 22 as experts in clinical case management gather to select questions for a Part III Pilot Examination.

Part III test committee members have been selected to include practicing state board representatives from all five districts and chiropractic college faculty. This group of experts will choose items for the pilot examination to adequately and fairly test on currently utilized practice techniques while still assuring the content covers what is taught in colleges.

If the new Part III Pilot Exam is successful, future administrations will move away from the solely traditional multiple choice format revolving around a single concept and instead test the students via a battery of questions pertaining to a single case. There will be more than one correct answer to a single question. Examinees must select the correct answers from a list of choices that are applicable to the case.

After the test committee develops items for the prototype exam, the updated Part III will be piloted at selected chiropractic colleges to determine the effectiveness and validity of the new format. Assuming pilot exams are successful, the new format will be introduced in 2009.

The Part IV staff is also looking at ways to update the practical exam. Dr. Clarence Kreiter, an expert in the field of education and professor at the Medical/Graduate Schools of the University of Iowa, recently analyzed the May 2007 Part IV Exam. The NBCE is proud to report that Dr. Kreiter indicated that the NBCE’s present pass/fail decisions are highly reliable and may rank among the best in the industry.

Although psychometric characteristics have been useful in the past for measuring the internal characteristics of multiple choice type questions, conversion to the generalization theory will afford the Part IV department the opportunity to more extensively examine variables associated with a performance-type exam. Generalization theory refers to the accuracy of generalizing from a person’s observed score on a test to the average score that person would have received under all possible conditions. In short, the NBCE wants to do an even better job evaluating the clinical skills of licensure candidates.

The process will involve researching new station formats that will assess clinical decision-making in greater depth. The first stage of this process will be to develop checklists with input from chiropractic educational institutions and subject experts. In the second stage of field testing, patient training, rater training and administration of prototype stations will be addressed. Then, with results in hand, recommendations will be made to the NBCE Board for possible implementation.

The Board will keep you informed of any decisions regarding examination development in future issues of this report.

3. Part IV Test Committee Selects Exams

Selected chiropractic experts gathered for the 13th annual Part IV test committee meeting on June 15-16, 2007, at the National Board headquarters in Greeley, Colo.

NBCE President Dr. Vernon Temple welcomed the test committee. “Thank you for being here and giving up this weekend,” he said. “The example you set in giving up a day of practice, a weekend with your family and a Father’s Day to work for the profession is truly appreciated. Your efforts are the reason the NBCE has excelled in producing exams that your state board can depend upon—we could not do it without you.”

Twenty participants from across the United States were chosen to review patient case scenarios and select case-related questions for the Part IV Practical Examination to be administered in November 2007 and May 2008. Part IV assesses clinical skills in diagnostic imaging, chiropractic technique and case management for applicants seeking state licensure.

The NBCE Part IV Examination was administered for the first time in January 1996 and has been administered twice yearly to more than 39,000 doctors. Part IV is presently accepted by 48 states and the District of Columbia for initial licensure in chiropractic.

Part IV attendees were:

Dr. David Allen, Mississippi	Dr. Leo Romero, Washington
Dr. Steven Baker, Arizona	Dr. Duane Sadula, Maryland
Dr. Kevin Davis, Nebraska	Dr. John Sando, Montana
Dr. Shayne Javersak, Oklahoma	Dr. Kirk Shilts, Massachusetts
Dr. Scott Kilmer, New York	Dr. Albert Stabile, New Jersey
Dr. Richard Lacey, South Carolina	Dr. Mark Steiner, South Dakota
Dr. Joyce McClure, Oregon	Dr. Carol Jean Winkler, North Dakota
Dr. Paul Morin, Maine	Dr. Rosemary Zimmerman, Alaska
Dr. Nicholas Opie, Hawaii	Dr. Judi Gerstung, NBCE Moderator
Dr. Gary Pennebaker, Minnesota	Dr. T. Sammy Lowe, NBCE Moderator
Dr. Kenneth Perkins, Texas	Dr. John Hyland, NBCE Moderator
Dr. Phil Pollock, Colorado	Dr. Margret Seron, NBCE Moderator

4. WFC Research Awards

On May 19, NBCE President Dr. Vernon Temple, NBCE Executive Vice President Horace Elliott and WFC Research Council Chair Dr. Scott Haldeman presented original research competition awards at the WFC Congress and the ECU Convention in Vilamoura, Portugal.

These annual awards are sponsored by the Foundation for Chiropractic Education and Research (FCER) which is based in the United States; awards are administered by the International Conference on Chiropractic Research.

The NBCE contributed a total of $15,000 to fund the awards as follows:

• First Prize, Scott Haldeman Award, $7000: Predictors of Adverse Reactions following Chiropractic Care for Patients with Neck Pain : Sidney Rubenstein, Charlotte Leboeuf-Yde, et al – the Netherlands and Denmark.
• Second Prize, $4,000: Economic and Resource Status of the Chiropractic Profession in Ontario, Canada: A Threat or an Opportunity: Silvano Mior and Audrey Laporte – Canada.
• Third Prize, $2500: Altered Sensorimotor Integration with Cervical Spine Manipulation: Heidi Haarik Taylor and Bernadette Murphy – New Zealand.
• Private Practice Award, $1500: The Effect of Sports Chiropractic on the Prevention of Athletic Injuries in Elite Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Trail: Wayne Hoskins, Henry Pollard and Rod Bonello – Australia.

5. NBCE Calendar

Fall National Written Exams Administration	September 7-9
Part IV Standardized Patient Trainers Workshop	September 15
Part III Pilot Exam Test Committee Meeting	September 22
National Board Day - Southern California University of Health Sciences	September 28
Part II and Physiotherapy Test Committee Meetings	October 19-20

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National Board of Chiropractic Examiners
901 54th Avenue
Greeley, Colorado 80634
970-356-9100

nbce@nbce.org

 

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