Kansas Board Approves NAHI and ASHI Tests - Denies NACHI Test

[Nick Gromicko]

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.

[Nick Gromicko]

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.

[Michael Larson]

Originally Posted by gromicko

.............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...............................

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?

[James H. Bushart]

Originally Posted by mlarson

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?

[Nick Gromicko]

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

[James H. Bushart]

The difficulty that Barnes will have in responding to the claim of obvious bias is in the law, itself.

The original law recognized the validity of all national associations by requiring each Kansas inspector to belong to one...which passing the InterNACHI on-line examination would be a required step.

In the absence of that requirement by the legislators...who made no distinction between associations...we have the new wording written by Barnes which does reflect the bias that the original law did not.

By this act, Mr. Barnes has stuck his middle finger in the face of every member...not just those who he is trying to exclude in his home state. I would hope that all InterNACHI members will now join us in this fight.

[Michael Larson]

My error when stated it was part of Kansas law. Thank's for pointing that out.

Unless it is amended before it is signed by the governor however it will become Kansas law.

It would make sense for NACHI to submit it's test to an outside evaluator to gain the needed credibility required by state laws..

[Buck Hartley, CMI]

Nick, why don't we submit the test ?

[Gary Farnsworth]

Remember everyone, if the new laws pass, Mr. Barnes will have the authority to chose any test that he wants us to take in order for us to be registered, certified, and licensed under his rules, regulations, standards, and any other crapola/vendor that he can get money from. Pay to play. Where will this money go? Who guards the guard? Who handles the checkbook? Who keeps the records of all the personal info that we send in? Does he sell the e-mail addresses? This board is a total anarchy, and should be thrown out by the state government. I believe that other board members did not vote, or were even informed about HB 2260. That in itself should tell you something is very wrong here. Perhaps it is right of Nick to stay out.

[Russell J. Hensel]

Originally Posted by gromicko

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

Do you REALLY believe this? Will all of todays technology, there is no company out there to evaluate your "cutting edge" system? Thats really FUNNY as hell. Your "cutting edge" system is like the TEST YOUR IQ that they give away for free on line....ask questions get a score. The other problem is that I can sit at this computer and take test for all my inspectors and have them pass. You have NO IDEA who is taking the test.

When I became a IAQA CIE...I went to the class, had to submit paperwork proving my proficiency before hand and then went to a testing station showed two forms of ID and one had to be state issued. No phone, no pen no paper...they provided it all. I took the test, 2 days later got a call saying I passed. It isn't rocket science

[James H. Bushart]

What you guys are suggesting is not totally without merit for some future consideration, but it is not at all relevent to what the immediate needs for action are in Kansas.

First, the original bill that was approved by the state legislature and signed into law by the Governor recognized ALL national associations and their eligibility criteria as sufficient enough to actually require all Kansas inspectors to belong to at least one.

Exercising the bias that was predicted by Nick in his letter to the Governor, Barnes has perverted the intent of the actual law by excluding the one particular association that he was already on the record as having publicly ridiculed.

Nick has statements sent to him by ASHI, NAHI and InterNACHI members who attended meetings that Barnes spoke at...proclaiming that he had fraudulently enrolled his dog (Molly) as a member of NACHI in order to discredit NACHI, as well as other disparaging declarations that they were witnesses to.

Second, the wording of Barnes' education policy specifically excludes all NACHI education (on-line or seminar) in favor of an already in place ASHI educator. Rural inspectors must travel to where his permanent facility is in order for their CEUs.

The unprecedented degree of anti-NACHI bias in all aspects of this bill is indicative of the true fact...that is...there is nothing that Nick will be able to do to meet these constantly changing definitions designed to keep NACHI out. An even newer revision, tomorrow, will add a feature that he lacks to anything he does today to comply.

Today....without delay....we need to confront the bias in this legislation that has been presented without any demonstrated need for it....at the expense of a state that is on the verge of bankruptcy, and cannot afford such a bill in the first place.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

William Siegel -

Kansas did not deny the NACHI Test. The Kansas Home Inspector Review Board did not deny the NACHI Test. One person wrote that verbiage and got it submitted into the Bill - Just like 90% of the other stuff being included.

[Gary Farnsworth]

There has to be some monitary funding to represenitives here. Some pushing, shoving, something that is going on had to push the vote this week to 97 to 26 in favor to approve these "revisions". Where is the influence coming from? What does Mr. Barnes have to gain by pushing these rules into law? This is a complete farse in the making, only controlled by one person backed by the KAR. I believe an investigation by the judicial system is warranted, before it all ends up in a large court case. Kansas does not have the funds or the revenue, or can afford the negative publicity that this would bring. I hope the senate realizes this, and comes to it's senses. The original bill was signed on a Sunday, and I bet all the tea in China that the governor never read it. And, she may be going to Washington. Everyone has dirty laundry.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

Jim Bushart - You Said:

"Second, the wording of Barnes' education policy specifically excludes all NACHI education (on-line or seminar) in favor of an already in place ASHI educator. Rural inspectors must travel to where his permanent facility is in order for their CEUs".

NOT TRUE - The various wordings of things like the PROPOSED "Rules and Regulations" for Kansas Home Inspectors and the language of the NEW Bill (HB-2260) is TRYING to push ALL continuing education AND Entry level education in Kansas UNDER the Kansas State Regents Board (the group that governs colleges, universities, BIG Trade or Vo-Tech Schools like Vatterott, ITA/Kaplan, etc).

The language of the NEW Bill (HB-2260) also states the Kansas Home Inspector Review Board can hire OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS / AGENCIES to: "help approve courses of study, educational providers and providers of continuing education and continuing education courses meeting the standards for approval established by rules and regulations of the board; and contract with agencies or consultants as necessary to assist the board in obtaining information about educational providers qualifications, etc, etc".

____________________________________


The ONLY thing that could possibly EXCLUDE anybody is the "Rules or Regulations" of the HI Board OR the costs involved with getting set up to be APPROVED by the Kansas Board of Regents - Little Things like owning your own building or having a 2-3 year lease on one; a $800 APPLICATION fee for in-state providers and $1,200 APPLICATION fee for out of state providers; having $1,000,000 insurance policies and $100,000 bonds on wherever you hold classes; ADA access to sites the classes are at.

So Jim - As you can plainly see, there is NOTHING in this Bill's wording that EXCLUDES InterNACHI or NAHI or Anybody. That EXCLUDING people would all be TAKEN CARE OF by the State Board of Regents or the SPECIAL CONSULTANTS hired by the Board.

Oh - If memory serves me correctly ONCE they approve your 1 place / I believe you can just about trot alll over the state and teach in a POLE BARN if you want. Now the Kansas HI Board DID NOT slam that language ONTO us; the Realtors DID NOT slam that crap ONTO us. The legislators DID NOT slam that language ONTO us. YOU be astute and GUESS who did.

I sat in sessions at the Kansas Home Inspectors Review Board where we were told by 1 Board Member that ALL CE or ENTRY level education in KANSAS for LICENSED professions was required to be CONTROLLED and UNDER the Kansas State Regents Board - I brought up several times there are a BUNCH of professions that are NOT. IT IS MY TRUE BELIEF THAT SOMEONE OR SOMEONES WANT US TO BE GOVERNED THIS WAY. That could allow them to say - they DID NOT exclude ANYBODY, the Regents Board did that. That way if there was a lawsuit, these somebodies could have a State Agency paying to defend them.

See the attached list of licensed Kansas professions NOT under the REGENTS BOARD. Most of the professions not requiring a college degree or lengthy vo-tech program are NOT under or WITH the Kansas Regents Board.

As home inspectors its NOT in our best interest to let ourselves get PLACED under the Regents Board. That is what would CHANNEL all education to the SPECIAL INTEREST groups.

[Dan Bowers, CMI]

Oh - I almost forgot.

The Kansas Real Estate agents did put themselves under the Kansas State Regents Board several years ago. It helped them cut down on state Real Estate Schools. No all - BUT - many of the RE Schools are now held at various Board of Realtors around the state. AND it takes an arm and a leg to get set up with them.