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NPTE Quarterly Faculty Newsletter Volume 13; No. 2

Second 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

Did you send us your graduation date yet?

In mid-May, we asked you (via email) for the exact graduation date of the first class that graduates after September 30, 2016. For those of you that already responded, thank you for your input.

If you have not yet responded, please email your graduation date to SchoolReports@fsbpt.org by June 30, 2016.

If you have multiple programs, include the FSBPT school code and graduation date for each program.

This information will make your students’ transition to the new registration process easier.

By getting the graduation date, we will automatically create cohorts for students that have existing FSBPT records at the time the new system is launched. Having the exact graduation date will ensure your students are placed in the correct cohort.

The new system will launch in October of this year. Training will be provided through webinars this summer to allow time to understand the new system before it goes live.

aPTitude and National Student Conclave 2015

FSBPT attendance at National Student Conclave (NSC) 2015 afforded us an opportunity to survey student about aPTitude –FSBPT’s free continuing competence recording/reporting tool. Some key findings from the survey include:

  • Nearly half of all respondents had heard of aPTitude
  • The most commonly cited sources of aPTitude information are:
    • Personal contact with FSBPT staff (at NSC, CSM, etc.)
    • Instructor presentations in class
    • Word of mouth
  • 83% indicated they are “likely” or “very likely” to register for a free aPTitude account upon licensure.

The aPTitude system can help licensees remain diligent in understanding, recording, and tracking their continuing competence activities and requirements. Our NSC survey results indicate that students have a strong desire to learn more about aPTitude. If you are interested in presenting information about the aPTitude system to your students, please contact us at CompetenceStaff@fsbpt.org.

2016 NPTE Workshop for Educators in October

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: How often are PEAT forms updated

PEAT forms are updated with each new content outline, at a minimum. The last update for individual users was June 2014, when we launched the new PEAT assessment system. At that time, we introduced an actual retired NPTE form and a practice form consisting of many retired NPTE test questions. Both forms provide a score that is comparable to candidate’s actual NPTE scores, item rationales and references, and a detailed score report.

This June, we launched new “Academic PEAT” forms at the PT level for schools that purchase PEAT through the group PEAT purchase process. These new forms also consist of an actual retired NPTE form and a practice form consisting of retired NPTE questions. Like the forms available to individual users, the Academic PEAT forms provide a score that is comparable to candidate’s actual NPTE scores, item rationales and references, and a detailed score report.

We expect to launch new Academic PEAT forms at the PTA level later this year.

What Students Need to Know: Taking PEAT more than once

We have been getting a few questions about how well PEAT predicts performance on the NPTE if a candidate takes the forms more than once. The answer is that taking the same PEAT forms more than once does not help a candidate pass the NPTE. On the second attempt, they will be taking the same questions again and have already been exposed to the answers, so the score they achieve will not be very predictive of how well they do on the NPTE.

Academic PEAT contains different forms than the PEAT available for individuals. If a student has taken Academic PEAT, there may be some additional value in taking the version for individuals.