January 10, 2017 - Michael Salinger
More response from the article on standardized high stakes tests.
http://www.fox26houston.com/news/228183139-story
January 10, 2017 - Michael Salinger
http://www.fox26houston.com/news/228183139-story
Here’s some further food for thought – Pearson has taken over the testing for the nursing profession both in the schools (at least in my area of the USA) and for the national certification test (NCLEX) as administered in each state. The various state boards have quit compiling the tests and administering them. As a result, the NCLEX may or may not reflect what is needed to to adequately test a graduated student nurse’s competency to practice nursing. I took the NCLEX in April 2016 and though I expected to walk out of the testing center after the 75 question mark (it’s an adaptive test), I was there for the full 275 questions. I passed on this first attempt however, the NCLEX I took did not touch on a number of very important and basic areas of testing for the field of nursing: no questions on diabetes, 1 question on insulin, 1 question on pregnancy, no questions on childhood development, no questions on vaccinations, 1 question on how to calculate a med dosage, no questions on newborns or infants, etc. Most of the questions I had dealt with management duties of a nurse – how to supervise LVNs and Nurse Aides. The NCLEX has now become the national nurse certification test of Canada – problem is the test is geared towards American practice according to some Canadian educators. As a result, the pass rate declined in Canada: approximately 68% in Canada overall.