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Description/Definition:
The proportion of community college graduates passing an examination required for Michigan licensure, certification and registry prior to practicing the profession based on a comparison to the number of graduates from the same institution who attempted examinations.
Licensure is applicable only to those occupations that require a State of Michigan license. It applies only to community college programs in Registered Nursing, Licensed Practical Nursing, and Dental Hygiene at the present time. Certification and registration are voluntary processes that culminate in official recognition by either a government or private agency after successful passage of a requisite examination. Certified and registered persons may then legally use the title granted by the respective agency after their names (e.g., Certified Medical Assistant - CMA). Employers often require certification and registration for assurance of entry-level competency.
Methodology and Data Sources:
The examination pass rate for colleges will be reported separately on a program-by-program basis. The pass rate for a particular college program will be calculated by dividing the number of its graduates passing the Licensure (L), Certification (C), or Registry (R) examination by the number of its graduates sitting for the examination.
Reporting: 1997-98
Registered Nurse (L)
Licensed Practical Nurse (L)
Emergency Medical Technician (L) - report basic
and paramedic separately
Dental Hygiene (L)
Radiologic Tech (R)
1998-99 -- (1997-98 requirements plus the following)
Occupational Therapy Assisting (R)
Physical Therapy Assisting (R)
Respiratory Therapy (R)
Automotive Technician (L)
Reporting Periods/Timelines:
Report on October 1 for graduates of the preceding academic year (July 1 through June 30).
Special Conditions/Issues:
Currently, there are many agencies who give results to the individual who was tested but do not provide and have refused to give results data to colleges who trained them. Examples of these are the auto mechanic license test and the property assessment test.
Students passing on a retake test can be counted if the retake occurs within the same fiscal year as the original test. Licensing agencies will not send these results but schools can call and find out if students passed the second time around.
Work Group Members:
Jo-Ann Terry, Henry Ford (Group Leader)
Tom Klopfenstein, Kellogg
Alice Rasmussen, Lake Michigan
Becky Wieland, Delta
Pilot Project Colleges:
The pilot was conducted during November-December, 1997 with the five programs indicated for 1997-98 reporting. All colleges participated.
Sample Format
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INSTITUTION |
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% Passing |
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Number Passing |
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Number Taking |
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STATE AVG. BY PROGRAM |
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% Passing |
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Number Passing |
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Number Taking |
History
A version of this indicator, Licensure Examination Pass Rate is used by the Michigan DMB as a community college performance outcome. In 1996, pass rates for the following programs were reported most often by community colleges to the DMB as performance outcomes.
Program # of Colleges Reporting
Registered Nurse (L) 27
Licensed Practical Nurse (L) 20
Emergency Medical Technician (L) 11
Dental Hygiene (L) 6
Radiologic Tech (R) 6
Background
Data collection will require state licensing agencies to report graduate-specific test performance data to individual colleges. Registrations and certification examination pass rates could be gathered and reported also if data are available from agencies. However, for confidentiality reasons, some agencies do not provide information to colleges, only to persons who took the examination.
Research Summary
A study by the Education Commission of the States (ECS), 1993-1994, showed that pass rates on professional licensure exams was one of the most commonly identified indicators adopted by ten different states. The Joint Commission on Accountability Reporting (JCAR) is the joint creation of several national higher education organizations. Licensure pass rates is one of seven JCAR standards and is reported based on responses from licensing agencies. In the Performance Indicators Capacity Survey, 22 of 26 community colleges indicated that they could report on this indicator with current resources and from existing data.
Estimated Cost of Pilot
No extraordinary costs are associated with this indicator. The required person hours of staff time for compiling data is not anticipated to exceed 8 hours, 1 hour per program for which data is gathered.
Conclusions
Recommendations for Performance Indicator
Recommended for annual reporting beginning 4th Quarter, 1998.
One recommendation is that MCCA request that the Governor sign an Executive Order that all state agencies that sponsor such licenses, certifications or registrations provide to the individual community colleges on an annual basis the results of how their graduates performed. This would require that the state agencies ask each applicant if they attend or have graduated from a Michigan community college.
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