The Counseling and Testing Center receives NCTA certification
According to the National College Testing Association, the Counseling and Testing Center is an unsung hero at the University of Idaho.
Holding contracts with more than a dozen different testing companies, it’s the only place to take a multitude of standardized tests without having to drive to Spokane or further. The CTC received its certification from the NCTA, making it only the second school in the Northwest and one of less than 100 institutions in the country to receive such an accolade.
The certification is fairly new, dating back only 5 years.
“The NCTA has a set of standards and guidelines that they publish for testing centers that include everything from security, to physical setup, to confidentiality training, and standard procedures,” said Steve Saladin, director of testing and assessment at the CTC. “We have to submit documentation of all the criteria, and evidence that we’re living up to those criteria. They (NCTA) have a local site visitor come in and verify the information, and then we get certified.”
Saladin said the reason for the certification is to create a universal and standardized certification system. One of the benefits is the ability for testing companies to easily verify the CTC is legitimate. Before, each company had to do their own type of certification through the CTC.
Although the NCTA certification program is still new, it willhelp to streamline and regulate the certification processes.
The CTC only just received NCTA certification, but has been involved in testing for a long time, Saladin said.
“The counseling center has always been involved in testing, from the time it was originally created right after World War II, but it was mainly admissions and placement testing for G.I.s coming back from World War 2,” he said. “We would administer things like the SAT, ACT, things like that. It was in the late 90s when the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) switched to computer-based testing that we really became a testing center as well as a counseling center because we had to set up something specifically for delivering tests.”
Saladin said the CTC is not just for students, but also for the extended Moscow community.
He said although NCTA certification is new, the center has always required certification from individual companies in doing its work throughout the years.
“We do a lot of certification exams, licensing exams, placement exams, we’re serving not only the university but also the entire community,” Saladin said. “This stuff was in place before — we had to be certified by individual companies. Even for companies that don’t have strict standards, we’re saying that the center meets those standards.”
Before becoming certified, companies could require as little as verifying the CTCs honesty policies before entering into contracting deals with the center. With the NCTA certification, companies will know the CTC is held to high standards, Saladin said.
He said students looking to use the CTC should plan strategically as certain times of the year can be busy depending on the specific test being offered.
“It all depends on the exam and the time of year. This is a big time of year for the GRE because people are getting ready for their graduate school admissions,” Saladin said. “Right now the earliest you could get in is 3 or 4 weeks out. If you wanted to do it in April, you could probably call in and take it the next day.”
Saladin said the assessment world is changing. He said 20 to 30 years ago, things like the SAT, ACT and GRE were the only tests being administered. The center recently started offering an Engineering Certification Exam, and hopes to continue to offer more and more tests, Saladin said, and the NCTA certification is a step in that direction.
“As tests become wider spread I think it’s more and more important that there is some kind of standard,” Saladin said. “To make sure that those tests are being delivered appropriately, and make sure the person taking the test is the person who’s supposed to be taking the test. The certification basically says that we’re doing that.”
Karter Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]