Building Individual Professionalism in Construction Since 1971.

A Valid, Reliable & Fair Direct or Indirect Measure for ACCE Construction Program Student Learning Outcomes

The AC Exam

• The American Institute of Constructors (AIC)

• AIC Constructor Certification Commission

• American National Institute of Standards (ANSI) Accreditation

• Constructor Certification

• Development of Associate Constructor (AC)  Certification Examination

• Utilizing the AC Examination as an ACCE Construction Outcome Measure

Presentation Overview

• Founded in 1971

• Organization dedicated to enhancing the professional image of a constructor.

• Provides education, networking and career advancement opportunities for it’s Members.

About the AIC

Testing and Awarding of Certifications Began

About the Commission

The Commission oversees all aspects of the certification process.

1996Constructor Certification Commission was founded to establish the Constructor Certification Program

1993

Oversees the examination development

About the Commission

Sets the educational and experience qualifications for Professional Constructors

Includes representatives from the industry and academia, including other trade and professional organizations like the ABC, AGC and ASA

ANSI Accreditation

Being accredited by ANSI serves as a third party national recognition of both the AC and CPC certifications.Steps to Becoming Accredited:1. Develop a comprehensive set of Operational Policies and

Processes based on ANSI Standards. 2. Conduct a Role Delineation Study to identify cognitive

competencies required of ACs and CPCs, the relative importance of each and the needed educational and experiential experience to take the examinations.

3. Based on the results of the Role Delineation Study develop the certification exams, using nationally acceptable psychometric methodology, to insure they are valid, reliable and fair.

4. Conduct a comprehensive Internal Audit.5. Submit application – 1000 plus pages.

American National Standards Institute

• A voluntary and non-governmental process to recognize the education and/or experience of an individual who meets certain criteria or standards

• An ongoing proof of commitment to ethics and professionalism

• Earned and maintained throughout a career

What is Certification?

Why Construction Certification

• Constructor Certification raises the standards of professional practices across the industry

• Provides the Constructor a professional image, in line with the Engineer or Architect

• Provides an independent assessment of an employee’s skills and knowledge

• Improves company marketability to clients

• Added assurance that employees will continue to improve their skills and knowledge

Benefits to the Employer

• Added assurance that their projects are being managed effectively

• Opportunity to use as a pre-qualification requirement

• Knowledge that their construction management team will be more professional and ethical

Benefits to the Owner

• Nationally recognized certification of one’s skills and knowledge

• Enhanced image as a professional to employers, clients and the public

• Improved career opportunities

• Sets one apart in a competitive marketplace

Benefits to the Constructor

• Provides a direct or indirect assessment of students’ scores compared to national averages, by subject area

• Provides a detailed assessment mapped to ACCE Program Outcomes

• Offers students unique opportunity to become certified upon graduation

Benefits to the Educator

Levels of Certification

Associate Constructor (AC) | Individuals within 12 months of graduating from a Construction Management program OR a professional with 4 years of experience in the management of the construction process.

Certified Professional Constructor (CPC) | For seasoned professionals. To qualify, you must have 8 years of qualifying experience OR a mix of 8 years of qualifying experience and education OR have obtained 4 years of qualifying experience since obtaining the AC designation. In all cases, a candidate must have 2 years of experience in a position of overall responsibility of a project.

Establishment of

required education

and/or experience qualification

s

Application

Approval

Examination

Certification

Continuing

Professional

Development

Certification Process

• To date over 22,000 individuals have taken the Level I examination and 1,200 have taken the Level II examination.

• Exams are given at over 70 locations, increasing yearly, many of which are Universities.

Growth of the Program

Current Certified Constructors

2,500 Associate

Constructors

750 Certified

Professional Constructors

Exam Specifications

Development of the AC Exam

• The Role Delineation Study provides information that is formatted into examination specifications.

• Exam Specifications are topics and subtopics associated with the identified knowledge of an individual at the respective level of certification.

• The topics and subtopics are placed within the same major categories that were used in the Role Delineation Study for consistency.

• Exam Specifications are available to the public.

Body of Knowledge

Development of the AC Exam

Communication Skills, 13%

Engineering Concepts, 5%

Management Concepts , 12%

Materials, Methods and Project Modeling and Visualization, 10%

Bidding and Estimating, 12%

Budgeting, Costs and Cost Con-trol, 12%

Planning, Scheduling, and Schedule Control, 12%

Construction Safety, 7%

Construction Geomatics, 2%

Project Administration, 15%

Writing QuestionsDevelopment of the AC Exam

• Commission Examination Committee develops the questions.

• Questions are mapped to the examination specifications and reference sources (i.e. textbook, etc.).

• All questions are placed in a data bank.

• Examination Committee randomly selects the required number of questions in each category to develop each examination.

• Examination Committee with oversight from Examination Contractor determine the minimum passing score.

• Following the scoring of all of the examinations, the Examination Committee with oversight by the Examination Contractor, conducts a formal psychometric analysis to determine the suitability of the continual use of the questions as is or as revised.

• Questions that are deleted are removed from the examination item data bank; those that need revision are revised and placed back in the bank and those that remain valid continue to remain in the bank.

Exam Analysis

Development of the AC Exam

• Measure as to whether or not the examinee has attained or mastered specific knowledge needed to be effective in the role for which the certification examinations have been designed based on the results of a Role Delineation Study.

• The AC examination has been determined by ANSI to be a valid, reliable and fair measure of the knowledge that the industry has determined as needed to be effective in the role of an entry level manager of the construction process.

• Therefore, the AC examination can serve as a direct or indirect measure of knowledge needed to be able to perform a designated outcome.

AC Examination as a Third Party Assessment

ACCE Student Program Learning Outcomes

Whether or not the AC examination can serve as a direct or indirect measure of the mastery of program student learning outcomes is based on the degree to which the examination questions assess the mastery of the domain of concepts associated with each outcome.

• A mapping exercise was conducted to determine for each ACCE Outcome, if there was a broad enough range of questions associated with a random sample of concepts within any one domain or outcome.

• It was determined that the AC exam can be used as a direct measure for the ACCE Outcome Numbers 6-8 and 12-20. And as an indirect measure for the other outcomes.

AC Exam as a Measure for the ACCE Student Program Learning Outcomes

• The assessment of the attainment of a specific program student outcome is whether or not the student has the prerequisite skills and/or knowledge to effectively perform it.

• Example: Create a construction project schedule – not – how they are creating a schedule or the degree to which they have mastered all of the individual concepts needed to create a construction schedule – which are skills/knowledge covered by specific course outcomes or objectives.

AC Exam as a Measure for the ACCE Student Program Learning Outcomes

• Since the examination questions must remain confidential for possible future use, they  cannot be shared to anyone, for any reason.

AC Exam as a Measure for the ACCE Student Program Learning Outcomes

How can the results of the AC examination be used to make improvements relative to any

specific outcome?

Case Study

The results from the administration of the AC exam indicated that a cohort of students did not perform at a specific construction education program predetermined level (outcome measure target) on a specific outcome and the program needed to work on making improvements.

Using AC Exam as a measure to make needed improvements

SCENARIO:

Case Study

The results from the administration of the AC exam indicated that a cohort of students did not perform at a specific construction education program predetermined level (outcome measure target) on a specific outcome and the program needed to work on making improvements.

Using AC Exam as a measure to make needed improvements

SCENARIO: The program faculty (with input from students and others) would have to assess the part of the curriculum and/or how it is being taught associated with the specific outcome, using the AC examination specifications, and identify areas of possible weakness, make needed revisions and see if improvements have occurred in the next testing session.

ACTION:

The results from the administration of the AC exam indicated that a cohort of students did not perform at a specific construction education program predetermined level (outcome measure target) on a specific outcome and the program needed to work on making improvements.

Using AC Exam s a measure to make needed improvements

The program faculty (with input from students and others) would have to assess the part of the curriculum and/or how it is being taught associated with the specific outcome, using the AC examination specifications, and identify areas of possible weakness, make needed revisions and see if improvements have occurred in the next testing session.

ACTION: Keep in mind that for any type of examination a student may not be motivated to perform well.

If student motivation to do well is identified as the reason for low scores, it is then necessary to develop and implement ways to incentivize students to improve their performance.

• Approved educational institution examination sites are provided a summary report of how their students, as a group, performed on the examination as a whole and by the 10 major categories along with a similar report combining all examination sites.

• Similar reports are made available by examinee as long as the examinee has provided prior permission for the Examination Contractor to release his/her score.

• The Commission plans to make available similar reports but by ACCE Construction Outcome for the use of construction education programs to use as a direct or indirect measure for each.

• The Commission will work with educational institutions to become approved test sites.

• AC Exam Study Guide is undergoing a complete revision and will be available before the end of 2015.

Initiatives to Assist Construction Programs to Utilize the AC Exam as an Outcome Measure

Why Support Use of the AC Exam?

• Examination Development

• Examination Administration

• Examination Accreditation

• Examination Assessment

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Building Individual Professionalism in Construction Since 1971.