Special Education, Board Certification, Challenge Exam

CHALLENGE EXAM

APPLY TO TAKE A CHALLENGE EXAM!

DEMONSTRATE YOUR COMMITMENT TO THE PROFESSION OF SPECIAL EDUCATION ADVOCACY WITH THE MOST RESPECTED CERTIFICATION NATIONALLY.

CREDIT FOR PRIOR LEARNING AND EXPERIENCE

Save time, and prove your proficiency by testing out of the board certification courses! Not all education advocates are educated equally or are equally competent. 70% of practicing professional advocates did not pass the 12 core course pretests in a yearlong study.

WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU HAVE UNIQUE LIFE EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION AND HAVE BEEN IN THE INDUSTRY FOR YEARS. WE RECOGNIZE YOUR PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE AND MASTERY OF SUBJECT MATTER AND TOPICS.

This provides professional education advocates the opportunity to demonstrate and document a professional level of academic competency and practicum experience. Board certifications are not licensure. Many professions do not have licensure but do offer board certifications through their professional associations to demonstrate a professional level of competency. Our exams were developed by a diverse national team of education advocates and faculty to represent the minimum standards required for a professional in this industry. A board certification candidate who successfully passes these examinations satisfies the requirements of and earns credits for the course requirements for a Board Certified Education Advocate designation.

Challenge Exams are provided to candidates who have attained knowledge equivalent to the NSEAI courses through professional education and experiences. Only Fellow level qualified candidates may apply for the challenge exam.

NSEAI, in order to encourage the growth of professional special education advocates and recognize personal knowledge and mastery of subject matter and topics, provides students, who have previously:

Been enrolled in equivalent courses that satisfy the syllabus areas of study

(Refer to syllabi online and make sure you are familiar with all areas prior to taking exam)

Shown evidence of advanced knowledge, and
Have had significant experience in the field

4 EASY STEPS

1- CHALLENGE THE EXAMS

The Board recognizes that you may have covered some components of the required content areas through previous educational coursework not taken through a NSEAI Program. The Board will consider granting credit towards the education coursework and practicum requirements for BCEA designation certification if:

The potential BCEA must offer evidence of a satisfactory command of the subject matter by passing all examinations and satisfactory completion of the certification project. The granting of the 12-course credit is based on the following conditions:

The BCEA candidate will be exempt from course attendance, homework, and other requirements if they pass the examinations.
The exams are the same final exams as given to those attending the courses.
A $1200 fee ($100 vs. $195 per course) is charged for the comprehensive 12 core course exams. This fee is non refundable. A “no show” or “incomplete” forfeits all fees.
A satisfactory grade of 70% or higher per each of the 12 parts of the challenge exam.
Challenge examinations are not available to those seeking credit for material learned in classes previously failed. Each of the 12 exams takes 30-60 minutes to complete. They must be completed over a 6-day period from the date of initiation.
Students who fail any of the 12 course exams must take the course failed, and pass the exam, to qualify for the education credit needed to satisfy BCEA application requirements. The cost of each makeup course is $195.00. No discounts apply.
Each Challenge Exam may be taken twice before being required to take any failed course classes.
There are approximately 300 questions in 12 sub-topic exams. 20-25 True or False or multiple choice questions on each exam.
The Exam is an open book exam.
You can view your official pass/fail status online on your exam date.
An eligible candidate can retake any one exam of the 12 exams up to 2 times before having to take the course either in person or via webinar.

2- PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE

A candidate will demonstrate practicum experience, which suggests:

Develop a successful portfolio demonstrating mastery to challenge the practicum component of the BCEA application requirements,
- Credit is granted for field experience, practical, or internship work.
- Two persons, who are members of the faculty or credentialing committee, evaluate this portfolio submission.
The candidate will show evidence of the experience requirement at a Fellow level, by portfolio method certification. This includes:
30 CEU Hours - Non-NSEAI continuing education hours in special education or related fields in the last 10 years.
Professional Education Advocacy Experience of 3 years OR a Graduate Degree in Education, Psychology, Law or Related Service Clinical License
Consultation on 20 or more cases with a minimum of 100 Advocacy hours of experience in 5 or more School Districts/regions.

3- CERTIFICATION PROJECT

The certification project process is the responsibility of the candidate and must be successfully completed within 2 weeks from the date of the challenge exam.

Completion of the certification project and exam. - No fee for the project and exam.

4- BOARD CERTIFICATION APPLICATION

The board certification application process is the responsibility of the candidate and must be successfully completed within 1 month from the date of the challenge exam.

Completion of the BCEA application fee and handbook ($200.00)
A candidate challenging by examination must demonstrate the same learning outcomes as a student who passes the courses in the traditional NSEAI academic setting, without exception.

PARTICIPATION QUALIFICATIONS

Participation in the Challenge Exam Program is not automatically given. It is at the discretion of the Clinical Director and Director(s) and contingent upon the following limitations:

The applicant must offer evidence of sufficient background to apply at the Fellow level of certification as a BCEA.
The applicant must be in good standing in the community.

RESTRICTIONS

The student, who has previously taken the challenge exam, may not retake this exam for NSEAI credit.
A student cannot use this exam to pass a course for which the student has failed previously.
A student on probation, or who is suspended, may not take an exam for credit
Any modifications to the above process may be determined and approved by the Clinical Director or Curriculum Committee.

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TESTING AND CURRICULUM QUALITY

Pre- and post-tests were used to document the quality of the NSEAI program, measure outcomes, and to demonstrate success. The psychometric data from each year’s exams give us useful professional impact data for progress reports. This data acts as an accurate measure, providing real-time feedback related to program quality. This information helps our curriculum committee to decide whether or not to make changes in the development and implementation of curriculum and related activities, so that we keep our profession current and able to produce highly effective outcomes.

PEER REVIEWED MATERIALS

Peer reviewed articles and research are used to create the exams and the curriculum from the multiple areas covereed in special education advocacy:

Research Based Advocacy Skills
Department of Education - BECs
U.S. Department of Education - Dear Colleagues Letters
Related Service Provider Practice Acts
Related Service Provider Standards of Practice
Related Service Provider Research Based Interventions
Education and Special Education Research Based Interventions and Best Practice Standards
Behavioral Interventions and Research Based Best Practices
Social Communication and Social Cognition Research Based Interventions
Academic and Transition Research Based Interventions
Research Based Communication Techniques
Congressional reports on IDEA, Education and Disability Issues
IDEA, Civil Rights and other Disability Related Law Regulations
IEP Development and Implementation Standards
Procedural Safeguard Usage
Psychology and Neuro-psychology evaluations and implications
Case Review Public Summaries, Etc…
Please See Course Syllabus

We do not teach you to be a pseudo paralegal. We are not lawyers. The profession of education advocacy is a stand alone profession with highly specific skills separate from the legal or education profession.

EXAM PASSING RATES

POST EXAM PASSING RATES

90% of all candidates (professional advocates, lawyers, clinicians, educators and parents) passed their 12 post examinations and certification project after taking the course. This reflected significant evidence of a significant overall improvement of knowledge and expertise in the advocacy skills as compared to pre and post examination results. .

PRE-TEST PASSING RATES

Out of 473 pre-examinations, taken by professional advocates in one year, the following percentages passed the pretests:

ALL PARTICIPANTS

23% of the total 473 participants passed the pretests.

PARENT OR LAY ADVOCATES – LITTLE TRAINING

20% passed of the 100 that had little training (< 30 hours and considered self taught) passed the pre-tests. Most were lay advocates, parents advocating for their children or parent buddies and not professional advocates. 90% had taken popular 1-3 day legally based education advocacy seminars.

PROFESSIONAL ADVOCATES – MODERATE TRAINING

20% passed of the 290 professional special education advocates that had moderate training (31-59 hours of local or state wide training) passed the pre-tests.

PROFESSIONAL ADVOCATES – FORMAL NATIONAL TRAINING

35% passed of the 83 professional special education advocates and special education lawyers with formal national training (>60 hours, averaging 100 hours) passed the pre-tests.

(Professional advocate is defined as someone who charges for services and has client contracts, has specialized knowledge or training in the area of special education advocacy, has taken a certificate course (not board certification) or is licensed in a field related to special education, and who considers special education advocacy (not special education law) as their main occupation. They are additionally committed to continuing education and ethical behavior. This included advocates who work for an agency that provides special education advocacy services to the public.)

AVERAGE PRE AND POST COURSE GRADE IMPROVEMENT

473 BCEA candidate’s average pre and post tests grades increased from 63% (below passing) in their pre tests to 85% in their post-tests,

A pre to post test score improvement occurred with a statistically significant 26% increase in knowledge of extensive and complex educational advocacy professional continuing education.
Even the highly experienced advocates improved their grades from an average of 68% in their pre tests to an average of 87% in their post-tests.
This 19 point improvement is statistically highly significant and represents a 22% improvement overall.
This improvement occurred in a population of very active professional advocates from multiple states.

CONTINUOUS QUALITY IMPROVEMENT

The exams were only one part of an assessment plan of knowledge associated with this profession and discipline specific curriculum. Exam assessments provided useful projections of participant behavior, learning within this field of study, ability to analyze, solve problems, understand relationships, and interpret material. The results enable NSEAI to monitor participant progression and learning, throughout prescribed periods of time, and determine where significant skills and knowledge deficiencies exist so that curriculum can be improved. Participant and alumni surveys, as well as exit interviews, were another important tool that was used.

ONLY PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS CAN OFFER BOARD CERTIFICATION

Board certifications are not licensure. Many professions do not require licensure but do offer board certifications through their professional associations. There are hundres of board certifying professional associations, which must focus on promoting just one profession and promote that profession. The NSEAI exam psychometric assessments demonstrated the extreme need to develop a minimum professional educational standard within the profession of Special Educational Advocacy and the need for minimum education consistency among those who practice to protect the public and the children we serve.

This data also demonstrated that training of professional advocates by only legal and conflict focused groups (not special education advocates) has not lead to acceptable minimum professional advocacy standards, nor the required knowledge for professional special education advocates to develop IEPs that lead to child focused, functional outcomes, commensurate with the child’s ability vs. just being legally sufficient.

These groups have moved to follow the literal interpretation of disability and education regulations and have lost or violated the intent or spirit of the law and the reasoning of why they where enacted in the first place.

LICENSURE IS A LEGISLATIVE ACT

Board certifications are not licensure. Many professions do not require licensure but do offer board certifications through their professional associations to reflect acceptable professional standards. A national survey of 500 diverse and active education advocates reflected the minimum duties of a professional Special Education Advocate to exercise the level of care, diligence, ethics and skills to practice effectively. These are prescribed in the NSEAI code of practice (practice act) for this profession. Professional Standards reflect a desired and achievable level of performance against which an education advocate's actual performance can be compared. The main purpose of professional standards is to direct and maintain safe and professionally competent education advocacy practice.

NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORK

After 3 years of research, collected by Educational Advocacy Agencies and national surveys, NSEAI developed a Professional Competency Profile for Credentialed Board Certified Education Advocates (BCEA) and Credential Evaluation Tools. The explicit purpose of these standards is for professional education advocates to develop the knowledge, skills, practices, and dispositions they need to help them perform at minimum professional levels.

NSEAI, a Professional Association, continues to assess the impact of professional learning in the existing systems. It identifies areas of focus for professional learning, and ensures maximization on the return on the professional advocate’s investments. It measures whether other learning communities and professional learning leadership use of data, learning designs, and other key indicators reach these minimum levels of required impact. This is done through pre and post testing, educational surveys and psychometric analysis of our exams. This leads to:

Core academic improvement planning
Identifying clear expectations and actions with the profession
Benchmarking of professional learning data
Program evaluation
Identifying of other programs with similar professional learning strengths and priorities
Identifying exemplary practices to share within the system
Assess improvement efforts
Fulfill requirements that result in positive client outcomes

CROSS-TRAINING

The need for cross-training within the special education advocacy profession became very evident early on. Having just a legal foundation was not enough and equaled the most basic level of training. Cross training is essential within the Special Education System since it involves, educators, many clinically licensed related service providers, research based programming, vocational and independent living programs, as well as community based programming outside of the public school. One cannot advocate within this integrated system of multiple professional experts without knowledge of all essential areas. Cross training is one of the best ways to mitigate risk to the client and ensure successful IEP development and implementation. IEPs cannot just be legally sufficient they need to be child need and functional outcome focused. This is life or death for some children and we cannot risk failing them. The consequences of the failure to adequately and professionally advocate for children, at these critical educational junctures that prevent them from accessing their education, is that they lose the opportunity to live independently, safely experience community inclusion, be in least restrictive environments, and be competitively employed at levels commensurate with their abilities. This addresses significant social justice issues not just education.

Special Education includes many experts outside of just the educational field. Up to 70% of those at an IEP meeting may not be educators and have clinical licenses. Experts in one field have an extremely limited ability to collaborate across disciplines or see the areas of need that go unaddressed. Education Advocates are crossed trained to have a working understanding across disciplines, which gives them insight into the bigger picture and allows them to see the unmet needs, ask the right questions, prevent conflict and, assist in the development of academic and functional outcomes for their clients.

PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSIS

Psychometric analysis is performed regularly and ensures that the board certification assessments meet design objectives, market analysis requirements and legal standards. Each test and its items are subjected to various analyses aimed at determining the measurement quality of the assessment and the prerequisite knowledge required to answer each test item. Exams, and every subsequent version, continue to meet this high standard of quality. We use specialized and industry-standard modeling for all exams, standard setting, criterion validity using both concurrent and predictive validity, task simulation studies and custom market research.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

Professional standards describe the competent level of care in each phase of the nursing process. They reflect a desired and achievable level of performance against which a nurse's actual performance can be compared. The main purpose of professional standards is to direct and maintain safe and clinically competent nursing practice.

These standards are important to our profession because they promote and guide our clinical practice. They provide an evaluation tool for yourself and your colleagues to ensure clinical proficiency and safety. Professional nursing standards are also used to provide a framework for developing clinical competency checklists or proficiency evaluations for a specific clinical unit or employer. And they may be used as a comparison tool to evaluate a nurse's care if the employer suspects the nurse has developed unsafe work habits or isn't adhering to established organizational policies or widely accepted guidelines established by state and federal laws or leading healthcare organizations.

Professional standards assist us, our management team, and our healthcare organization to develop safe staffing practices, delegate tasks to licensed and unlicensed personnel, ensure adequate documentation, and even create policies for new technology such as social media. For example, if a nurse discloses on a social media site that he or she is providing care to a specific patient, it potentially violates the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Violating a professional standard can expose you and your healthcare organization to liability and potential loss of licensure.

Professional standards guarantee that we're accountable for our clinical decisions and actions, and for maintaining competence during our career. They're patient centered, promote the best possible outcome, and minimize exposure to risk of harm. These standards encourage us to persistently enhance our knowledge base through experience, continuing education, and the latest guidelines.

We can utilize professional standards to identify areas for improvement in our clinical practice and work areas, as well as to improve patient and workplace safety. We must continue to ensure that our—and our peers'—clinical practice meets or exceeds established professional standards to maintain the trust and respect of our patients and the community.