Council On Certification Committees

The Council on Certification is looking for assistance in accomplishing the work of the Council by asking for volunteers to serve on their committees. If you are interested in assisting us please indicate which committee you are interested in serving on as well as your name, credentials, contact information, current employer, job title and number of years in the Cancer Registry profession. We are interested in obtaining a broad variety of volunteers both geographically and in experience. If you are not selected to serve on a committee at this time due to a heavy response, your name will be retained and considered in the future as other opportunities become available.

Committee assignments will occur throughout the year, please respond to exam@ncra-usa.org.

Item Review Committee
Committee charge: Each year items (questions) are written for the ODS Examination by the Item Development Committee and other persons in the Cancer Registry profession. Before these questions are incorporated into the ODS examination item bank, they are intensely reviewed. The Item Review Committee subsequently reviews the submissions and works with the newly written test questions for incorporation into the item bank for future ODS examinations. This committee also reviews test questions in the item data bank when standards are changed. When Cancer Registry standards change, all questions in the item bank related to the standard must be reviewed to insure compliance with the revised standard.

Chair: Council member

Meetings: Several meetings are planned with different participants Location will be determined by location of committee members. Volunteers will be asked to participate in only one day-long face-to-face meeting.

Membership requirements:

• Members shall not hold employment in any educational services related field that provides instruction to future registrars with the following exemptions:
• Members providing basic training through state Cancer Registry organizations or central cancer registries
• Members supervising postsecondary students during practicum training.
• Members may not participate in a ODS prep course for one year following their participation with the committee.
• Members who are not ODSs or who lose their ODS certification must waive their right to take the ODS examination for two (2) years following their participation with the committee.
• All members will maintain confidentiality of all test items and be required to sign a confidentiality statement.

Member Expenses: Will be covered by NCRA based on current fiscal guidelines.

Examination Construction Committee
Committee charge: Members of the Exam Construction Committee make recommendations to the Council regarding ODS certification exam content, development and administration. The committee also is responsible to ensure the exam content reflects current practice based on personal experience and expert studies, and provide expert guidance on the methodology of scoring the ODS examination.

The Exam Construction Committee will review a draft of the certification examinations compiled by the Testing Service to:

• ensure the items correspond to competencies on the current examination content outlines,
• are in compliance with item format and content principals found in the Item Writing Guide,
• have performed well in differentiating candidates on past examinations (if past examination data is available),
• are not redundant with other items on the same examination, and
• represent the current Cancer Registry concepts and principles.

All members will maintain confidentiality of all test items and be required to sign a confidentiality statement.

Chair: Council member

Meetings: One day-long face-to-face meeting planned

Membership requirements:

• Members shall not hold employment in any educational services related field that provides instruction to future registrars with the following exemptions:
  • Members providing basic training through state Cancer Registry organizations or central cancer registries
  • Members supervising postsecondary students during practicum training.
• Members may not participate in a ODS prep course for one year following their participation with the committee.
• Members who are not ODSs or who lose their ODS certification must waive their right to take the ODS examination for two (2) years following their participation with the committee.
• All members will maintain confidentiality of all test items and be required to sign a confidentiality statement.