Mickie Rops Consulting

It's official.  The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has selected the ANSI/ASTM E2659-09 Standard Practice for Certificate Programs to use as the foundation for its accreditation program for certificate programs. 

ANSI conducted a thorough analysis before making their determination.  Speaking for ASTM, we developed a substantial backgrounder to accompany our presentation to the Accreditation Committee in February, including a side-by-side comparison of the ASTM International and NOCA standards, organizations, and standards development experience and capacity.  Then, we submitted a 22 page response to the Committee's questions (linked to their selection criteria) detailing, among other things, the degree to which the standard will increase training and education program overall quality, how the standard is evidence-based, aligned with education and training industry best practices, and was developed with broad participation by appropriate stakeholders.  There's no question the Accreditation Committee had significant information on which to base their decision.

Now that the standard has been selected, things will be moving quickly.  Here's where ANSI is on the program:

• the accreditation committee is already in place (they made the standard determination),
• assessors have been selected through an application process, nominating committe review and recommendation, phone interviews, and final approval by the accreditation committee,
• the call for pilot testers will soon be issued,
• the pilot tester selection criteria have been established and a selection committee is being appointed to review applications and recommend pilot testers to the accreditation committee, and
• training has been scheduled for the accreditation committee, assessors and pilot testers.

As always, I'll post here as more updates are available, including a link to the official press release which should be released today or tomorrow.