Everything You Wanted to Know About Assessment Centers

The Assessment Center Educational Materials are a comprehensive guide to the complicated process of administering an assessment center in your organization. Whether you’re using an in-house assessment center system or one developed for you by an outside organization, the ACEM is an invaluable tool to make sure your administrators, assessors and candidates are informed, prepared and know what to expect during the process.

Starting immediately, the ACEM is also $50 less! We’ve lowered the price to $249 and you can order it online today. (more…)

By Assessment Services Staff|2012-02-23T16:06:37-04:00February 24th, 2012|Announcements|Comments Off

Happy New Year!

Everyone here at IPMA-HR would like to wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2012!

In this New Year we will continue to innovate our assessment products as well as enhance the content brought to you through this blog.

We’ll be sending our new test product catalogs out in the mail in the next few weeks. We decided to split the catalog into five smaller catalogs to separate out the areas our tests cover: police, fire, corrections, dispatch and administrative. The new format will make it easier for you to share our products with co-workers by only giving them the catalog that focuses on their needs, while keeping the catalog you need on hand.

Also, we continue to improve our website, which you can always find at:

http://testing.ipma-hr.org

Over the course of the year, we’ll work on improving online availability of more of our documents, such as reading lists, technical reports and test response data reports.

Speaking of websites, we’ll have some big news in the coming weeks about a new site that we think you’ll love.

In addition to finding us online, you can get in touch with us by:

Phone:	(800) 381-TEST (8378)
Fax:	(703) 684-0948
Email:	assessment@ipma-hr.org
Mail:	IPMA-HR 1617 Duke St Alexandria, VA 22314

Thank you again for helping us making 2011 great! Let us know how you’re enjoying the new Assessment Services Review in the comments below.

By Assessment Services Staff|2012-01-04T11:24:10-04:00January 3rd, 2012|Announcements|Comments Off

New Promotional Fire Tests Now Available

We are pleased to announce the launch of four new fire service promotional examinations, designed to assess qualifications for promotion from firefighter to company officer.

Company officer is a first-line supervisory rank commonly called fire lieutenant or fire captain in different municipalities. The new tests incorporate the most current developments in the firefighting field — new technology, new regulatory requirements, hazardous materials updates, new developments in firefighting and rescue, as well as supervision and team leadership concepts. All test questions were selected using a thorough validation process, including linkage to the job analysis data and review by 18 or more expert practitioners in the field, from different departments and geographic regions, to assure each question’s accuracy and relevance. All questions were also linked to study references which were formulated into a recommended reading list for candidates.

The final products of the validation study were four 100-question tests. Two of the four tests are designed for departments which provide EMS services, and the other two tests are for non-EMS departments.

Each test covers areas such as fire behavior, firefighting procedures and tactics, rescue and safety, building construction, supervision, hazardous materials, fire prevention and fire safety, and (for two of the above forms) emergency medical services.

The final test forms are:

FCO101-EM	Fire Company Officer test with EMS component
FCO102-EM	Fire Company Officer test with EMS component (alternate form of FCO101-EM)
FCO103	Fire Company Officer test – no EMS component
FCO104	Fire Company Officer test – no EMS component (alternate form of FCO103)

Besides reflecting the most recent developments in the field, these tests provide more flexibility for the departments which use them. Departments can alternate the use of these tests over time to avoid overexposure of the questions in the promotional process.

A Technical Executive Summary is available for the FCO Series of tests in lieu of a full Technical Report. The full Technical Report is expected to be made available by the start of 2012.

Reading lists for all four tests are available immediately to Test Security Agreement signers.

By Assessment Services Staff|2011-11-14T12:01:08-04:00November 14th, 2011|Announcements|Comments Off

The Test Administration Handbook Is Now Free!

We are excited to announce that, as of today, we are making the Test Administration Handbook part of our collection of FREE electronic publications. After three years of service as a valuable paid publication, we’ve decided to make this essential introductory guide to assessment available to all Test Security Agreement signers. You can order it online immediately.

The remaining physical copies of the Test Administration Handbook will be provided for free as an added bonus with all test orders until supplies run out.

The Test Administration Handbook covers many topics of interest any HR professional would benefit from having, but can be specifically beneficial for someone just beginning their career in assessment. Specifically, the goals of this handbook are to:

Review basic concepts related to employment tests and test development.
Provide an overview of the legal and professional considerations concerning employment tests.
Explain the different ways through which employment tests can be procured.
Describe how evidence of validity can be generalized or transported from one situation to another.
Review the administrative aspect of the test administration process including gathering materials, securing test materials, communicating with candidates, providing standardized instructions to candidates, proctoring the test administration, and handling test-room irregularities.
Provide a variety of useful resources including a glossary, references for additional readings, and appendices containing support materials. Support materials include IPMA-HR’s Considerations in Handling Test Accommodations and Considerations in Implementing Selection Procedures.

The Test Administration Handbook joins our catalog of FREE publications including Considerations in Addressing Adverse Impact, Considerations in Handling Item Challenges, Considerations in Implementing Selection Procedures, Considerations in Test Accommodations, as well as the Test Day Administration Guide.

The Public Safety Oral Interview Handbook is still available for purchase at a price of $40.

By Assessment Services Staff|2011-10-28T14:23:57-04:00October 31st, 2011|Announcements|Comments Off

Test Security Agreement Update

It has come to our attention that item II. G. of the Terms and Conditions of our Test Security Agreement was worded in a potentially confusing manner that could lead to misinterpretation. As a result, we have rewritten this section of the agreement in an effort to be more clear and direct. The updated text reads as follows:

No candidate review of entry-level tests is permitted. Agencies required to have review and appeal procedures must follow the instructions for handling candidate reviews and item challenges described in the publication Considerations in Handling Item Challenges, which is available online or upon request. This publication contains detailed steps for handling promotional-level candidate reviews and resolving item challenges in such a way that will help ensure you maintain test security.

As you can see, this section now clearly states that no IPMA-HR entry-level tests can be reviewed by applicants and all challenges to promotional-level tests must be dealt with as discussed in the free publication Considerations in Handling Item Challenges, which can be ordered online from our website by a Test Security Agreement signer.

We thank you for your continued effort to abide by all security measures outlined in the TSA. The updated copy of the document is available on our website, along with several videos dealing with test security. If you prefer, you can also download the PDF directly.

We suggest that you take a moment to read over the updated agreement and submit the new form. This will help ensure you’re up to speed on the updated test security policies and it will help us make sure we have all your contact information up to date. Please note, however, that your existing agreement will not expire with this update, but you are expected to adhere to the current terms of the agreement.

The Test Security Agreement is our first line of defense for keeping our tests secure; it outlines measures and processes that should be used by all customers handling testing materials. It is with a clear understanding and continued effort from both IPMA-HR and customers like you that our testing products remain a reliable scale of future public safety employees.

By Assessment Services Staff|2011-10-14T15:51:07-04:00October 17th, 2011|Announcements|Comments Off

Welcome to the New Assessment Services Review

The staff at IPMA-HR’s Assessment Services Department is pleased to announce the launch of the new Assessment Services Review.

We have long used the ASR as a way to communicate with our customers and share news related to public safety testing and selection processes, as well as announce new products & services and share tips on how to ensure your own test administrations run smoothly and without incident.

Traditionally, the ASR has been presented in a newsletter format; first as a print newsletter that we mailed to our customers, then as an e-mail newsletter. While we will continue to retain the e-mail newsletter format, sending monthly updates to feature content we published over the previous month, we encourage you to subscribe to the blog format in your favorite RSS feed reader or get the Assessment Services Review delivered to your inbox by using the subscribe box in the sidebar on the right side of this page.

You can still view past editions of the ASR on our website, going back as far as 2004.

By Assessment Services Staff|2011-09-16T16:55:28-04:00September 16th, 2011|Announcements|2 Comments

New Series of Articles Coming Soon

Robert Burd will be joining the ASR staff to write informative articles on HR selection and testing related topics. First up will be an article on succession planning and how assessment centers can be used as part of a developmental approach to promotional opportunities.

Robert is an HR professional with over thirty years of experience in public sector human resources specializing in selection including: test development and validation, designing and conducting oral boards, assessment centers and physical fitness testing. His experience includes functioning as a division head for Recruitment and Selection and Classification and Compensation for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the City of Henderson, Nevada. Mr. Burd has also been a long time member of IPMA, IPMAAC, and WRIPAC. His education includes a Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a specialization in Personnel Management, a Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology with a specialization in standardized testing and measurement, and a Paralegal Certification for the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Robert will be using a mix of research and his vast experience to bring you articles on informative and innovative topics. Please leave us some feedback in the poll above or the comments below on other topics, issues, problems, etc. that you would like to see covered in future posts.

Look for the first article from Robert Burd soon.

By Assessment Services Staff|2011-09-16T16:08:26-04:00August 31st, 2011|Announcements|Comments Off

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