2008 Rehab Specialist Certification To Be Awarded at Fall Conference
Five Rehab Specialists
have successfully passed the Certification Test given at the Spring 2008
Conference. Of those five, two are eligible to apply for Master
Certification. Successful candidates will be announced at the Fall 2008
Conference and will be presented with their framed Certificates. In
addition, other candidates will be eligible for modular testing at the
Fall 2008 conference, and may achieve Certification by successfully
completing the required modules. Those successful candidates will be
announced at the Spring 2009 Conference. There will be another
opportunity in 2009 to achieve PHRANC recognition as a Certified
Rehabilitation Specialist.
Offered at the Spring 2009 conference, the exam
will consist of 20-25 questions covering each of the 10 subject modules
for a total of 200 to 240 questions. Most questions will be selected from
a battery of almost 1000 questions which has been built over the last few
years by ICF (a national training and consulting firm), and a Task Force
of members and friends of PHRANC.
Task force members, highly qualified for the job,
have worked on each module to ensure the validity of each question,
adding new ones as needed. The electrical module, for instance, was
reviewed by a licensed electrician; the codes and standards module by a
licensed contractor; and the structural and environmental module by the
building scientists at Advanced Energy, etc. Similar expertise is being
applied to developing the questions for the 2008 exam.
The rules the task force members follow in upgrading,
updating and augmenting the questions are: (1) Is it relevant to
single-family rehab? (2) Is it relevant to the way things should be done
in
North Carolina
?
(3) Is it accurate and verifiable (not a matter of opinion or
interpretation)? (4) Is it up-to-date (not based on an obsolete code
reference, etc.)? (5) Is it clearly worded, such that most reasonable
persons will understand exactly what is being asked? (6) Is it
grammatically correct? and (7) Would it be useful for a rehab specialist
to know this?
Any general knowledge consistent with rules 1, 2 and
7, above, might be tested on the exam. Click here to see typical
exam questions to help with preparation for the test.
Exam answer sheets will be coded so participants'
names will not be associated with their test until all scoring is
complete. They will be scored “blind” by the Certification
Task Force Chair and members, after the spring conference. The board will
review the scoring results, compare them with previous years’
scores, and evaluate the standard for certification, again without
reference to names. Finally, handsome certificates will be presented at
the fall conference to those who are successful. In addition, any
candidate whose scores meet a higher grading standard will be invited to
apply to the Board of Directors for certification as a Master
Rehabilitation Specialist.
The 10 subject modules are: (1) Codes and Standards, (2)
Property Inspections, (3) Work Write-ups, (4) Cost Estimating, (5)
Project Management, (6) Plumbing, (7) Heating and Air Conditioning, (8)
Electrical, (9) Lead Based Paint, (10) Applied Building Science. (Module
10 will cover indoor environmental issues beyond lead-based paint,
moisture issues, and other issues related to building performance.)
Being a member of PHRANC is the only eligibility
requirement for taking the test.
Jim Matthews,
Vice President and Rehabilitation Certification Task
Force Chairman
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