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An Introduction & OverviewDenise Rizzolo, Anne Schempp & The Assessment Team

The PAEA End of Curriculum™ Exam

I would rate my knowledge of the PAEA End of Curriculum exam as?

Don’t know much

AMore then an feeling

BStill haven’t found what I’m looking for

C

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Provide an overview of the End of Curriculum exam

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Objectives

1Describe constructs of the exams 2Discuss performance level descriptors 3Describe standard setting 4Explain components of the score report5

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The purpose of this exam is to assess a PA student’s general medical knowledge as one component of their readiness for graduation.

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Purpose

Designed to complement other tools that assess core medical knowledge, as well as interpersonal skills, patient care skills, and professionalism.

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Complements local assessments

A 300-question exam, built using a blueprint and content area list developed by PA educators and national exam experts. Exams will be delivered through a secure, password-protected that will utilize a lockdown browser to maintain content validity. Required to be delivered in the final four months of the PA program

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Format

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Policy level descriptors“Definitions that determine how rigorous and challenging a standard will be for an assessment.”

Performance level descriptors“Labels classifying a test taker’s competency in a particular domain.”

Scoring

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Important Definitions

Policy Level Descriptors

LIMITED

MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE

SATISFACTORY MEDICAL

KNOWLEDGE

ADVANCED MEDICAL

KNOWLEDGE

The learner at the limited

performance level

demonstrates a partial

understanding of general

medical knowledge.

The learner at the satisfactory

performance level

demonstrates a sufficient

understanding of general

medical knowledge.

The learner at the advanced

performance level

demonstrates a

comprehensive understanding

of general medical knowledge.

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A critical part of nationally standardized educational, licensing, and certification testing. The process used to define the categorical scores that correspond to the performance levels and their descriptions. A categorical score is simply the score that serves to classify the students whose score fits into that level. The categorical scores are set by a collaborative work group of subject matter experts.

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Standard Setting

A diverse group of 33 people will convene in Chicago November 1-3, 2019.

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Standard Setting Workgroup

Scale scores will allow programs to track performance on an exam over time. For the PAEA End of Curriculum exam, scale scores will be given in the range of 1200-1800.

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Scale Score

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Quick Facts

Administration Pricing Launch

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Want to learn more?

On Friday, “The PAEA End of Curriculum Exam: A Technical Overview”10:00 to 11:30 a.m. and 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.

On Saturday, “The PAEA End of Curriculum Exam: Achieving Alignment”9:30 to 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 to 3:00 p.m.

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Questions

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Has the ARC-PA approved the exam?

The ARC-PA does not endorse the use of specific assessment tools. PAEA recommends that when programs adopt any assessment tool they have a thoughtful and meaningful reason as to why this tool is being used to evaluate their students. Programs must be able to document their rationale, and assure that assessments, learning objectives, and instructional strategies are closely aligned.

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Can we use the PAEA categorical scores as pass/fail scores?

While PAEA is providing categorical scores, programs must individually determine if these categorical scores accurately represent pass scores within their individual programs. PAEA recommends that programs monitor student and cohort performance on the End of Curriculum exam and adjust their local scoring process as needed.

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Can programs use this to predict PANCE performance?

No, the exam is not designed to predict graduate performance on PANCE, that is not the intended purpose of the exam. Programs can and should analyze student performance on PANCE looking across program assessment tools, including locally developed exams, PACKRAT, End of Rotation, and End of Curriculum exams.