A partnership with certification industry experts was developed to create a plan for exam revision.
Work on the NIC had already begun in FY14, and the RID Certification Committee and RID Headquarters’ staff continued to work together to complete the first phase of the project, a Job Task Analysis (JTA) study. The purpose of this work is to more clearly define the role of the NIC interpreter and update the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) required. With an updated definition and list of KSAs established, RID could begin the work of assessing the certification as a whole, including the content of current examinations.
To accomplish this, RID contracted with experts in the certification industry who conducted a series of personal interviews, online focus groups, and a two-day, in-person Expert Practitioner Panel in Alexandria, VA. In total, more than 50 interpreters and members of the Deaf community participated in this process.
During this process, RID attempted to determine if a JTA could be done for the CDI and NIC simultaneously. However, it was determined that the best approach to this process would be to follow conventional wisdom of one JTA for one credential. As the NIC and CDI are significantly different, combining the JTAs would create the risk of either short-changing one credential or having data that could not be easily differentiated between the two different roles.
The result of the interviews and panels was a preliminary list of KSAs for the NIC interpreter. However, in order to ensure that this list is applicable to the wider community, they must be vetted with a validation survey (JTA). This survey will be open to the entire interpreter and Deaf communities and will ask which KSAs are used most frequently or are most critical for a newly certified NIC interpreter.
The second phase of this project is to evaluate which KSAs are currently evaluated in the requirements and assessments and how they need to be augmented. There is potential to re-imagine the assessment for the credential, including the development of new exams or adding alternative criteria, such as portfolios or interviews.