1. What is Happening to the National Board Dental Examination? Kari Cunningham ASDA Representative to the JCNDE Western Regional ASDA Meeting October 30, 2009

2. What is the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations? “Joint Commission” “JCNDE” Those people who keep making changes to the board exam The reason we are here today!

3. What is the JCNDE? The Joint Commission is the semi- autonomous agency established by the Bylaws of the ADA to assist state boards in evaluating candidates for licensure by overseeing policies and procedures for its written licensure examinations: NBDE Parts I and II NBDHE

4. The JCNDE does this by establishing testing policies and procedures in accord with the Standards for Education and Psychological Testing

5. The Department of Testing Services (the people you reach when you have questions about the NBDE) Is the administrative unit of the ADA

6. Joint Commission has 15 members 6 AADE (American Association of Dental Examiners) 3 ADA (American Dental Association) 3 ADEA (American Dental Education Association) 1 ADHA (American Dental Hygienists’ Association) 1 ASDA (American Student Dental Association) + 1 Observer 1 Public

7. Meets once a year Various standing and ad hoc committees At the 2009 meeting, the JCNDE established a Committee on Communications (more on this later)

8. What about the NBDE I and II? Historical Prospective 1928 – National Board of Dental Examiners Charged to provide and conduct written exams First editions of exams were essay-based (talk about a true written exam!)

9. Early 1950’s - the exam was changed to multiple choice Led to adoption of norm-referenced scoring procedures 1960’s – Council on National Board Examinations employs computer scoring

10. Early 1980’s –equating examination by using common anchor items Ensures a consistent standard for minimally acceptable performance Ended era of norm-referencing: exams became criterion-referenced

11. Early 1990’s – Part I and II are criterion-referenced examinations 1990 – All U.S. licensing jurisdictions accepted the NBDE as fulfillment of the written requirement for licensure 1992 – a comprehensive, case-based Part II examination 2007 – a comprehensive Part I exam

12. Why all of these changes? Changes in content to reflect growth in knowledge of the basic biomedical and clinical dental sciences have been gradual and frequent Want to keep the content tested reflective of the current practice of dentistry Protect the purpose, content and validity of the exams

13. What is the purpose of the NBDE?

14. The NBDE scoring process possesses minimal error at the pass/fail score of 75 Standard scores are highly reliable only at the pass/fail point Scoring

15. The NBDE scores are designed for use by state dental boards in making valid licensing decisions The use of these scores for any other purpose (student ranking, school ranking, faculty evaluation, admission, etc.) must be validated by the user

16. Overexposure of exam content Achieving a better score on this pass/fail exam has become motivation to obtain and share unreleased exam content Since 2003, the number of candidates who retested after passing Parts I and II is 2046

17. January 1, 2010 Passing candidates will not be allowed to retest unless required or requested by a licensing jurisdiction Initial date on which the NBDE Part I and II scores will be reported as pass/fail

18. Resolution 70 Submitted by AAOMP, AAPD, AAP, AAOMS, AAO, AAPHD, ACP Resolved, that the ADA House of Delegates request that the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations (JCNDE) reconsider pass/fail on National Board Exams and reinstitute the dental student rankings and standard scores, and that reporting of results to both students and dental schools retain its quantitative nature.

19. January 1, 2012 The Joint Commission approved of a delay in the transition from a reporting of numerical scores to a pass/fail reporting system from 01/01/2010 to 01/01/2012

20. Why the delay? Affords stakeholders more time to prepare State boards may need to amend their dental practice acts ADEA is researching and developing an instrument that may assist post-doctoral programs in evaluating candidates

21. What is ASDA doing? Two students representing the Association (one observer and one commissioner) ASDA is represented on the ad hoc Committee on Communications

22. Committee on Communications Charged with…  Clearly communicating significant policy initiatives to appropriate stakeholder groups and  Seeking input and feedback from various stakeholder groups as the Joint Commission considers and implements new policy initiatives as part of the strategic plan

23. Joint Commission Newsletter Debuted in spring of 2008 Sent to stakeholder groups such as dental school deans and assoc. deans, advanced education program directors, clinical testing agencies, dental hygiene program directors, state dental boards, JCNDE members, select associations (ADEA, AADE, ASDA, ADHA, NDBE) and others as requested

24. Individual ASDA members do not receive the JCNDE Newsletter Word of Mouth ASDA e-publication Possibly utilize social networks (facebook, myspace, etc.) to enhance communication Update the JCNDE website

25. Contrary to popular belief… The JCNDE is not out to get you!!

26. THANK YOU!!!

27. References Technical Report: The National Board Dental Examinations (Copyright 2008) JCNDE Newsletter (Spring and Summer) Dr. Mark Christensen Trends in Candidate Performance, Tsung- hsun Tsai (ADA) www.altalang.com