Is It Time to Raise Certification Renewal Requirements?

A Look at Common Program Methods

Friday, September 24, 2021

A Look at Common Program Methods

By Janice Moore, SeaCrest Consulting, and Todd. R. Philbrick, CAE, American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)

Are your renewal requirements providing enough assurance to stakeholders that your certificants are remaining competent? The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) recently debated this question, prompting exploration of common and novel continuing competency requirements.

ASHA is the national, professional, scientific and credentialing association for audiologists; speech-language pathologists; speech, language and hearing scientists; audiology and speech-language pathology support personnel; and students. The same requirement for continuing competency/certification renewal has been in place for almost 20 years. Following ASHA's December 2019 Future of Learning event, which was facilitated by Elliott Masie, the certification council and staff decided to review the continuing competency requirement for ASHA’s 200,000 certificants to ensure its method of assuring continuing competency was meeting the needs of consumers.

ASHA partnered with SeaCrest Consulting to analyze the continuing competency/renewal requirements of 100 accredited certifying bodies and recommend options. SeaCrest compared their findings with the October 2020 “Renewal Programs in Professional Certification and Licensure” report published by the Institute of Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.) to provide a broad look at common practices and emerging trends. The I.C.E. study includes survey responses from 177 certification and licensure organizations. The outcome revealed several common components along with novel approaches to ensuring certificants remain competent.

Recertification Profile

ASHA’s three-year recertification period matches with the typical cycle length of many accredited certification programs. Emerging models indicate an interest in longer, overall cycles with a mid-point evaluation. For example, a program could follow a 10-year cycle that requires an assessment with continuing education (CE) due every five years.

CE remains the most prevalent recertification requirement. However, newer models indicate a trend toward directing and focusing CE activities to fill knowledge gaps, incentivize learning in specific content areas, or improve knowledge in specialty areas.

Assessments for the purpose of guiding, or setting, minimum requirements for the content and/or amount of CE seem to be gathering growing interest. Some programs use self-assessments for this purpose while others depend on psychometrically developed assessments designed to determine areas of strength and weakness. An assessment developed to guide professional development goals and inform a personalized learning plan may encourage certificants to engage in timely and relevant CE content and discourage individuals from choosing CE based more on convenience than learning needs.

A few certifying bodies reassess the knowledge and skills of their certificate holders through a psychometrically valid assessment tool. However, we found that they tend to represent specialty and advanced areas of certification, whereas ASHA provides broad, entry-level certification.

Table 1 summarizes the most frequently found recertification components across the 100 accredited certification programs in the sample group.

Profile of Recertification Requirements

One pathway for recertification

Recertification required every three years

CE is the primary recertification requirement with 30 CEs required in each three-year cycle

A variety of activities are accepted for CE credit, including other courses, workshops, webinars, academic courses, conferences, presentations, authoring publications or chapters participating in exam development, board service and volunteer work

All requirements are completed by the end of the recertification cycle

The average fee on a per year basis is $87.62 with a discount available for members of an affiliated association

If the recertification deadline is missed, a grace period with an additional fee allows an opportunity for reinstatement

Table 1

Alternative Requirements for Consideration

ASHA evaluated three alternate sets of potential recertification requirements as outlined in Table 2 below. Each represents a different focus based on emerging trends identified in the research.

Focus on maintaining general knowledge while supporting specialization	Focus on customized professional development based on individual needs	Focus on frequent touch points and continual learning
Recertification required every three years	Longer cycle with mid-point requirements	Longer cycle with mid-point requirements
30 CE units required with a minimum number of CE in each of three focus areas: Essential knowledge: Focused on areas in which every certificant should remain up to date Specialized knowledge: Focused on the individual’s specialty area Emerging knowledge: Focused on new or emerging information that all certificants should understand	Mid-point assessment to inform professional development needs or goals CE requirements informed by the assessment outcome	Assessment to identify key areas for additional learning Completion of CE at multiple points throughout the cycle to promote continual learning Practice or employment requirement to maintain hands-on proficiency
Required ethics learning and agreement to abide by the Code of Ethics	Required ethics learning and agreement to abide by the Code of Ethics	Required ethics learning and agreement to abide by the Code of Ethics

Table 2

While ASHA’s current maintenance requirements align closely to those of many accredited certification programs, this position may shift in coming years if more programs move to assessment based continuing competency measures. The 2014 revision of the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) “Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs” and the more recent 2020 revision of the Accreditation Board for Specialty Nursing Certification (ABSNC) “Standards for Examination-Based Certification Programs” introduced more rigorous requirements related to recertification. These changes reflect the increased attention on continued competence across the certification community.

Planning for the Future

ASHA considered the research results, accreditation requirements, stakeholder needs and feasibility in the decision-making process. After careful consideration, ASHA decided to keep the current renewal/continuing competency requirements in place for the next three years while continuing to monitor changes within its professions and the broader certification community. The certification council agreed it was pertinent to continue monitoring continuing competency trends as the scope of practice and educational preparation continue to grow and evolve, which makes it paramount that certificants remain competent over their decades of practice.