Kansas Board Approves NAHI and ASHI Tests - Denies NACHI Test

You now have your association bias, Nick.Let’s see what you can do.

See Page 4.

It will probably be like that Jim …until Nick proctors his test for certain criteria, like this “Cluster-Jack”

Someone explain how INACHI’s test can be considered for inclusion as long as this is in the bill:

K.A.R. 130-1-3. Examination. (a) To be approved by the board, each examination
required for registration shall meet the following requirements:

(2) be psychometrically sound as evidenced by documented evaluation of the examination by an independent organization.
*

It has nothing to do with association bias. It has everytning to do with having a valid test.

If it so important, why doesn’t NACHI have a proctored TEST. I would rather pay NACHI $200 than NAHI or ASHI for a test. I am sure Nick can find away to produce a proctored TEST.

NACHI tests can be proctored at any community college for a fee…considerably less than the NHIE.

Proctoring does not make the NACHI test psychometricaly evaluated by a third party as required by the Kansas law.

Bottom line, the Kansas board only wants inspectors operating in Kansas that THEY want, and will have the power to decide, no matter what the test results, background checks, or pycho exams they throw at us. It will only be ASHI inspectors. We, the others, are out of business, and the home buyers of Kansas will not get full inspection reports, so the inspectors of Kansas will not kill real estate deals. This is what the KAR wants, and without the help of Nick, this will happen. It is pretty much a conspiracy, a union. Kansas is a right to work state, and the board is calling our bluff, that we, as the other inspectors, will not sue. All we need to do is promote the treat, but no one will do that. So, it is ASHI and Mr. B…s that will control the home inspection industry in Kansas, and it will spread to other states. If Nick does not move now, the life of us and iNACHI will be dust in the wind.

Our psychometrically valid exam has been proctored more than any other in the inspection industry. Every college that uses it to issue actual college credits… proctors it, and has for many years.

InterNACHI’s exam better predicts competence, includes built in intelligence that finds weak spots in the exam taker, has a higher passing cut off score than any other national exam, and a lower pass rate (even in proctored settings): www.nachi.org/aboutexam.htm

Say what your want. The NACHI test is not, at this moment, a valid test.

Kansas did not deny the test. They set rules for the validity of the test. ASHI and NAHI meet those rules. NACHI does not.

I still do not understand why NACHI does not do the same thing???

I have requested proof of this statement for the past 5 years…

Fantastic, I didn’t know that.

Now could you please direct me to the documented evaluation of the examination by an independent organization.

(3) on or before July 1, 2008, received official notice of passing the examination offered by the American society of home inspectors, inc.

As far as I know at no time in 2008 did ASHI offer a home inspection exam, are they talking about the independent NHIE?

The Kansas board has the power to decide everything about operating a home inspector business in Kansas. Education, rules, regulations, SOP, ethics, everything. Whomever presents the most money to the board will be the winner. We will be at their mercy, no one else. This is what they want. Control. KAR now will have it. Reports will only be perhaps one page so that the RE will sell the homes. Home buyers will loose.

As far as I know, ASHI no longer offers an exam (although they used to years ago). They got rid of it when they went to the NHIE.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination developed in accordance with accepted psychometric standards, but much, much more than merely being developed in accordance with accepted psychometric standards (which was simple), InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination has numerous built-in technologies (developed by InterNACHI) that makes it the industry’s best determinator of inspector competence, by far.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination was developed by InterNACHI over many years, measures competence in home inspectors based on the critical job components and delineated skill sets from Standards of Practice, Code of Ethics, interviews, mock inspections, surveys, observations, group discussions, and data collected from some 430,000+ exams already taken. With the industry’s most popular exams, quizzes and online education, combined with it’s 255,000 page website and 450,000 post message board (both the largest in the industry), InterNACHI, the largest home inspection association in the world, collects and possesses more home inspection exam question/answer data and industry information than all other private and government entities combined. Unlike other home inspection examinations that may use a panel of experts (if at all) to review and validate each question once, InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination exploits its ongoing access to most every expert in the field. The questions/answers and any related performance issues stand the test of time under the industry scrutiny suffered in InterNACHI’s message board, InterNACHI’s open to all existing exams and quizzes, InterNACHI’s online education, InterNACHI’s exam prep tools, InterNACHI’s expert trainers/educators, and InterNACHI’s various professional committees. In essence, everything the industry knows, every question ever asked to test that knowledge, and every right and wrong answer ever given to those questions, are forever examined to verify technical accuracy and content validity. Other existing home inspector examinations admit that their content is based solely on one old role delineation study. Exploitation of InterNACHI’s massive data collection abilities has permitted the build up of a supplemental bank of psychometrically sound items (questions) that are rotated into the InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination pool replacing obsolete items with items of similar content and difficulty. This is especially important in the inspection industry where the pool of items used in licensing exams is widely known and circulated. The massive culling of this industry-wide data also provides a vast, published item reference in support of legal defensibility. InterNACHI’s exam system’s built-in intelligence constantly and automatically calculates and recognizes absolutely everything from individual repeat improvement to overall industry knowledge trends.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination was developed using a blueprint based largely on InterNACHI’s Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics with test methodology based primarily on Standards for Education and Psychological Testing by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination also relied on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies’ Standards for Accreditation, and other applicable standards.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination is an open book exam. Exam takers are free to bring and use any written notes or printed (non-digital) reference material during the exam; however use of palm pilots or laptops is prohibited. Calculators are also prohibited and unnecessary. The items in InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination are biased toward application, analysis, dynamic problem solving, and defect recognition where the exam taker demonstrates learning at a higher cognitive level by applying his/her knowledge on new material. New material includes a referenced photo or diagram or a situational/hypothetical stem question. InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination can be administered open book as it simulates the situations home inspectors face every day. Biasing InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination toward application, analysis, dynamic problem solving, and defect recognition gives the exam a high degree of validity for predicting inspector success in the field. Other existing home inspection licensing exams are based on recall. Such minimum standard exams do nothing more than test the exam takers ability to remember the correct answers and re-state facts.

Because InterNACHI is already the largest provider and administrator of home inspection exams and quizzes, inappropriate, poorly worded, ambiguous or questionable questions and/or answers are quickly recognized and revised or removed from future versions. In addition, new items are developed as the industry evolves. With exception of the lightly weighted content domain industry terms, InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination minimizes the effects of ancillary skills (such as terminology familiarity) by using commonly used phrases including synonyms where available. This also minimizes the effect of geographic bias so prominent in the inspection industry.

Each stem question in InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination is meaningful in and of itself. In other words, the questions are worded so that the exam taker could predict the correct answer after merely reading the question. For instance, Q. Radon… A. exposure increases one’s chance of contracting lung cancer. would be worded as follows: Q. Radon exposure increases one’s chance of… A. contracting lung cancer. (note, this is not an actual item found on InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination).

Negatively stated questions appear on InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination only when necessary. For instance, when technically correct, “should not slope downward” would be worded “should slope upward” on InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination. Negative stems that include terms such as “except for” or “does not include” are avoided in InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination.

Because use of “all of the above” and “none of the above” should not be used as distracters (incorrect answer options), InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination does not incorporate such answer options at all.

Because very few things in professional settings are “always” or “never” true, InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination uses such terms judiciously.

InterNACHI formally and informally validates every question and every answer choice (correct and incorrect). Each item is validated to ensure that the knowledge and/or skill tested by the item is essential for one to pass*, *validated to assure that the keyed correct answer is in fact correct without ambiguity, and validated to ensure that the incorrect answer options are in fact incorrect, but still plausible enough to provide distraction. Distracters (incorrect answer choices) found within InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination are not tricky or deceptive, but instead employ common errors.

As part of the psychometric analysis performed on the InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination, each question’s pass/fail rate is calculated and recorded each time the question is answered so that the question difficulty is quantified over time. Regular checks comparing the answers given by experienced, skilled inspectors with those offered by inexperienced, unskilled inspectors verify that each question contributes to testing the exam taker’s competency. Also, at the end of every exam session descriptive statistics custom to each exam taker are displayed along with a color pie chart depicting that particular exam taker’s weaknesses.

InterNACHI’s proctored Online Inspector Examination is proctored by the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors (InterNACHI), home inspector schools, and Community Colleges in various locations throughout North America. One may take InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination as often as one wishes with no wait period between attempts. Proctored exam takers must bring and present photo identification. Acceptable forms of photo identification include a driver’s license, state identification card, passport, or military ID.

Exam takers are free to drink beverages during the exam. Exam takers are free to take a break during the exam but the time clock does not stop. It is unlikely any exam taker will need more than the time limit given, even with breaks. Obviously exam proctors and administrators are unable to help with answering questions found on the exam and exam takers may not talk with each other during the exam.

All of InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination testing facilities meet guidelines that ensure handicap accessibility, quiet and security and comply with the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act in accommodating exam takers who, because of a disability, need special arrangements.

Even though each item on InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination has only one correct or clearly best answer, InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination scoring system permits modest reward for next best answer choice and severe punishment for very wrong answer choice.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination scoring system is much more advanced than existing home inspector exams to the benefit of public safety. Each item is validated to determine the relative importance on assessing the exam takers knowledge and skill, as is each answer to each question. Then each is weighted accordingly. Not only are the questions in InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination weighted, the answers are as well in the sense that an exam taker is punished severely (in terms of score) for incorrectly answering questions that indicate that he/she could cause physical harm to the public, but not greatly rewarded (in terms of score) for correctly answering such questions. This same scoring is used for questions that test minimum competency. Likewise, difficult questions (questions that lie outside or nearly outside the scope of a home inspection) are weighted such that the exam taker is not severely punished for answering incorrectly. Other existing home inspector exam’s questions and answers are all weighted the same in terms of scoring.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination was developed based on the American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education’s Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection Procedures, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

InterNACHI’s Online Inspector Examination is the industry standard for assessing inspectors.

Not knocking the NACHI test Nick but where is the documented evaluation of the examination by an independent organization as required by Kansas law?

I have to correct you here, Mike.

The documented evaluation of the examination by an independent organization is an invention of the licensing board and does not appear anywhere in the law that was approved by the legislature and signed by the Governor.

All of the wording regarding the test…as written by the licensing board…includes all associations except the one association that Nick warned the Governor, by letter, that Jeff Barnes was biased toward — prior to his appointment.

Mr. Barnes, after his appointment, fulfilled the predictions made by Nick to the Governor.

I would strongly suspect that Nick plans to bring this to the Governor’s attention BEFORE she makes the same mistake a second time, and creates an autonomous group of people predetermined to favor certain home inspectors over others.

Right, Nick?

And on top of what Jim said… we know of no outside organization with the technical expertise to evaluate our cutting edge exam system www.nachi.org/aboutexam.htm