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NPTE Quarterly Faculty Newsletter Volume 13; No. 1

First Quarter 2016

The mission of the Federation of State Boards of Physical Therapy is to protect the public by providing service and leadership that promote safe and competent physical therapy practice.

The NPTE Quarterly Faculty Newsletter is published by the Federation (FSBPT) as one mechanism to communicate with educators in PT and PTA programs. This effort to provide ongoing communication includes current information and updates on the NPTE as well as information on other regulatory issues that might impact or be of interest to program educators.

Please share this newsletter with other PT or PTA educators.

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Table of Contents

Coming October 2016: A new school-centered NPTE registration system

Last month, we sent an email announcing this upcoming change to program directors. As a reminder, here are the changes.

Schools will have two roles going forward:

  1. Providing contact information prior to registration. Schools will provide basic information about the students in a cohort in their first year. Providing this information will be the basis for creating a unique ID in the FSBPT system for the students. Students will then be able to log into the FSBPT system and create their user profile. The login allows access to FSBPT services, including purchasing PEAT and registering for the NPTE. You will not be required to provide any FERPA-protected information about the student.
  2. Validating Graduation. Prior to students being allowed to register for the NPTE, the school must validate the students have graduated or will be graduating. FSBPT will establish a window during which this validation must occur. Schools will adhere to their own policies regarding when a candidate becomes eligible for the NPTE.

Why is FSBPT doing this?
Currently FSBPT obtains information about schools attended from the candidates, the state boards and the schools. The current process sometimes results in inconsistencies that can delay registration and score reporting. This new process is expected to provide a more accurate, efficient and consistent process for the candidates, schools, and licensing jurisdictions.

What will this result in?
This change will yield reliable data prior to testing, faster pass rate reporting, easier processing, and fewer interactions between schools and the online system.

When soliciting input from schools on this new process, there was a concern that this would be more work for the schools. In the current environment, we ask schools to review and update their student lists eight times a year, in concert with the four PT exam administrations and the four PTA exam administrations.

The new process will have schools interface with FSBPT once in the student’s first year of school and once in the final year of school. Other than updates schools might need to make if students leave their program, only two interactions will be necessary.

When will I need to start entering cohorts and validating graduation?
The new tasks required of schools will start October 2016.

Be on the lookout: 2016 PT/PTA Practice Analysis

FSBPT has contracted with social science research firm HumRRO to conduct the 2016 PT and PTA Practice Analysis. Among other things, the practice analysis will form the basis for updating the NPTE in 2018. FSBPT is currently constructing the surveys and plans to launch them in the June/July timeframe.

Please let your faculty and alumni know about these important surveys, and encourage them to respond if they receive one of our emails. Getting reliable information from physical therapy practitioners is vital to making the NPTE a high quality tool for making good licensing decisions.

2016 NPTE Workshop for Educators

This year’s NPTE Workshop for Educators is scheduled for October 14-16, 2016 in Alexandria, Virginia.

Why do educators attend? Because they learn:

  • How to write better multiple-choice questions for their exams that follow the same format as the NPTE
  • How to statistically analyze test questions to determine if they are good questions
  • How the NPTE is developed from content outline through scoring
  • How to prepare students for the test administration experience
  • How to interpret and effectively use school pass rate reports

And it’s a great opportunity to ask questions of FSBPT staff!

For more information, go to NPTE Workshop for Educators.

This Quarter’s Question: What ID will be needed to take the NPTE?

Not having the right identification can result in being turned away at a Prometric center. No one wants that!

Prometric has developed a clear handout to help ensure that your students have the right identification on test day.

To quickly review, they will need a primary and secondary piece of identification. Each piece has specific, different requirements.

In addition, their first and last name on each piece MUST match the first and last name on their “Authorization to Test” letter that we (FSBPT) issue. Middle name/initial is not required.

View and download handout.

What Students Need to Know: How to find out licensing requirements in any state

Although you might have a good understanding of the licensure process in your own state, what happens when one of your students is planning on getting licensed in another state? There are two great resources at www.fsbpt.org that can help students navigate the application process in any state.

Need to find out which states will make a student eligible to sit for the NPTE prior to graduation and which ones require an official transcript showing that the degree was conferred? Go to the Licensure Reference Guide to learn about the initial licensure requirements in the 53 member jurisdictions of the Federation.

Once the student has identified a state, they can access the contact information and that state’s PT Practice Act on the Licensing Authorities Contact Information section of the website. The best place to find the answer to a question about the application process is the state board itself.