The attached letter to the editor is of my own making, and some of it is based on a relatively long connection to the NCEES exams. I did not consult with NCEES about my comments (and I'm guessing that Joel did not consult with them either), and thus any errors or misstatements are mine alone. I have copied a few people that have also had some exam experience and understand the importance of exam content validity.
February 9, 2009
Mr. Marc Cheves, L.S., Editor
The American Surveyor
905 W. 7th Street #331
Frederick, MD. 21701
Re: Point to Point - January 2009
Dear Mr. Cheves,
The January issue of The American Surveyor has an interesting commentary by Joel Leininger, L.S. regarding “Minimum Level of Competence” (Point to Point, page 6). The term has generated tomes of discourse and discussion, especially with regard to those professionals licensed by government. On the surface one can agree with Mr. Leininger’s annoyance with the phase, and his discussion about the term being indefinable and lacking exactness has some merit. However, the premise that there is some required clarity should be from a public protection vantage, not with regard to one’s livelihood.
Regardless, the issue (and part of the term) is well founded in professional regulation, and that concept needs to be embraced as the standard for professional practice. Typically surveying licensure has three requirements; education, experience, and examination(s). Unfortunately, these requirements do vary from state to state, but there is a general solidarity that all three are required. Educational and experience requirements are nearly never defined in terms of competence, minimal or otherwise. Educational fulfillment is most often validated by a degree (hopefully accredited) and/or a transcript of approved coursework. There is a proposed trend for some engineering professionals to start defining educational competence in terms of levels of achievement in accordance with Bloom’s taxonomy. Experience is vitally important, but some state statues lack the structure and exactitude necessary to validate that requirement. Consequently experience is most often NOT measurable in terms of what is required from a minimally competent candidate.
This brings us to the third licensure requirement, that of examinations. Typically for surveyors there is a national fundamental exam, and professional practice exam and a state specific exam. Here is where Mr. Leininger should have done a little more research before coming to the conclusion that the exam procedures (adhered to by NCEES) are “a wild stab at the minimum competence issue”. First of all NCEES does not determine the minimum competence of the candidates, state licensing boards have that function.
Exam development procedures at NCEES adhere to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (most current edition), and by professional consensus, these standards define the necessary components of quality testing. The standards emphasize the concept of content validity, and a job analysis (PAKS – professional activities and knowledge study) is needed to obtain specific task information and the knowledge required to competently perform those tasks. The claim that … “the idea is to poll newly licensed surveyors about the tasks they are facing and then structure the NCEES test…..” is quite misleading if not untrue.
The Surveying PAKS that I am familiar with were completed by NCEES in 1979 (Boyles), 1984 (Boyles and Palmer), 1991 (Warner and Warner), 1998 (Warner and Warner) and 2003 (Chauncey Group). In 1991 nearly 75 % of the respondent population had been practicing for 6 or less years (newly licensed). However, in 1998, 87% of the respondents had more the 5 years experience (12% 1-4 years), and in 2003 over 85% had more than 5 years of experience (10% 1-4 years). Clearly the last two PAKS show very experienced respondent surveyors, and predominately these licensed surveyors were 40-60 years old and in private practice. Consequently, the question of “circular logic” is not logical. The PAKS committee is comprised of highly experienced and very diverse surveyors and subject matter experts, and the respondent population (detailed above) is asked how important a task and knowledge area is to protect the public (i.e. , licensure). Thus only the most important task and knowledge statements are included in the exam specification, which is certainly not a wild stab at the minimum competence issue. The NCEES exams do, in my opinion, satisfy the concept of content validity.
Most importantly and the purpose of this response, the annoying “level of minimum competence” phrase. I too am annoyed, but just with the word minimum, whether dealing with competency or standards, as it connotes a lesser amount. Why should we all just be minimum? The NCEES Model Law has no mention of minimum competence, only minimum requirements for licensure. In 2006 a NCEES task force recommended that (relative to their exam cut scores) the definition of minimum competence must be standardized, and that the standard should emphasize the critical knowledge necessary to protect the public ( See Action Items and Conference Reports page 140 NCEES 2006). After much study and discussion the committee proposed a generic definition, and this was accepted by the Council and incorporated into their Exam Development Procedures Manual. In part this definition says, “The standard of competence is the minimum level of knowledge and skills an individual must demonstrate in order to practice (land surveying) and be in responsible charge in a manner that will protect the general health….”. The exam specifications are a part of this definition and consequently the definition encompasses all of the tasks and knowledge from the PAKS. There is no “minimum competence”. There is also a different standard for the fundamental exam, as it is strictly for entry into the licensure process.
Hopefully a licensed surveyor will continue to grow, become more knowledgeable, and increase their level of expertise. Part of being competent is knowing what you don’t know, and that standard dictates that a professional stay within their level of expertise.
Very Truly Yours
Robert C. Krebs, P.E., L.L.S.
134 East Shore Road
South Hero, Vermont 05486
Tel. 802-372-4567
Editorial: Maps as a Metaphor
"I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us--everything that exists--proves that there are infinite laws behind it. There can be no denying this fact. It is mathematical in its precision." There are many surveyors and mappers and members of the precision community who concur with these words of Thomas Edison. Economy, too, hangs on immutable laws. One of the .... Read the Article
Measuring a Caribbean Disaster
On January 12, 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the city of Port-au-Prince, the capital and largest city of Haiti. Tens of thousands of buildings collapsed, and more than 200,000 people died in the disaster. Earthquakes are not unexpected in Haiti. The country sits astride several fault lines, among them the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden fault .... Read the Article
3D-Laser Scanning and Surveying Collide
LandAir Surveying started business in 1988 performing site surveys and topographic surveys for contractors in Georgia and surrounding states with two survey crews and a total staff of less than 10. By 1998 the firm expanded to surveying cell tower sites for the telecommunications industry (more than 3,000 sites in four years) using ... Read the Article
Another Triumph!
He's done it again. Javad Ashjaee has released an impressive state-of-the-art product that enables surveyors to expand their GNSS capabilities. On June 29, 2010 Javad unveiled the Triumph VS at the company's 40,000 square foot newly designed headquarters and JAVAD EMS boardmanufacturing facility in San Jose, California. Over the decades ... Read the Article
Product Review: Hemisphere GPS R220
One of the recent trends in precision GPS manufacturing is the enclosed, fully integrated receiver. This is no doubt in response to market demands by surveyors in the field for gear that offers more durability and less complexity in setting up and getting to work. This trend has certainly offered surveyors many benefits, however, it has also ushered in a few limitations. For instance, many of these ... Read the Article
Comprehensive Collection
Recording the location, dimensions and physical attributes of every piece of equipment constituting rural utilities throughout the United States might seem like a tall order. But information tools used to build a GIS have advanced so much in recent years that the endeavor is not only possible, but plausible. Great Falls, Montana-based GeoNav Group International, Inc. recently acquired the technology to pull .... Read the Article
Feedback
Doing a Proper Job: I have a better reason for the legal profession insisting on a metes and bounds descriptions for dependent resurveys than clerk mentality or ancient check lists. In his article "Rewriting Legal Descriptions" [Vol. 7, Num. 4], Gary Kent's example of "the most egregious example of description rewriting is the preparation of a metes and bound description for a property that is a lot in ... Read the Comments
Vantage Point: "Just" What?
Several months ago my husband and I were working on a rail to trail conversion in our neighborhood, digging out debris and planting trees. At one point I was separating the junk found in the digging process from the recyclable beer cans and glass bottles when someone walked up and started talking to me. With my head still down, in the midst of trying to subdue a long strand of barbed wire into a ... Read the Article
Share this page with your favorite social networks!
Reach our audience of Professional land surveyors and Geo-Technology professionals with your career ad. Feel free to contact us if you need additional information.