Adopting the Rules and Procedures in Ensuring Validity of Test Items in Licensure Examinations

April 26, 2012

PRC RESOLUTION NO. 649-12

ADOPTING THE RULES AND PROCEDURES IN ENSURING THE VALIDITY OF TEST ITEMS IN LICENSURE EXAMINATIONS

WHEREAS, Section 7 (b) of Republic Act No. 8981, known as the "PRC Modernization Act of 2000", empowers the Professional Regulation Commission to make such rules and regulations and issue such orders and other administrative issuances as may be necessary in the execution and implementation of its functions and the improvement of its services;

WHEREAS, Section 7 (d) of the same law also empowers the Commission to adopt measures to preserve the integrity and inviolability of licensure examinations;

WHEREAS, under Section 7 (o) of the same law, the Commission shall exercise administrative supervision over the various Professional Regulatory Boards and their members; HDcaAI

WHEREAS, there is a need to fulfill the vision of the Commission in securing for the nation a reliable, credible and progressive system of determining the competence of professionals through valid and trustworthy licensure examinations;

WHEREAS, there is a need to properly and effectively monitor and evaluate all test items in the Test Questions Data Banks (TQDBs) in order to maintain the validity, reliability and credibility of all the licensure examinations;

WHEREAS, it is imperative for the Commission to establish specific rules and procedures in the preparation/formulation of test items and in the conduct of peer review to be observed by all Professional Regulatory Boards (PRBs) prior to encoding in the TQDBs and mandatory item analysis after the release of every licensure examination results.

NOW, THEREFORE, the Commission resolves, as it is hereby resolved, to adopt and promulgate the "Rules and Procedures in Ensuring the Validity of Test Items in Licensure Examinations" herein referred to as Annex "A", which shall form and be an integral part of this Resolution;

FURTHER RESOLVED, that copies of this Resolution be furnished all the Professional Regulatory Boards and officials of the PRC Central and Regional Offices, for their information and guidance; and EHCcIT

FINALLY RESOLVED, that this Resolution shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its complete and full publication in the Official Gazette or any newspaper of general circulation in the Philippines.

Let a copy be furnished the UP Law Center for its information.

Done, in the City of Manila this 26th day of April 2012.

 

(SGD.) TERESITA R. MANZALAChairperson

 

(SGD.) ALFREDO Y. POCommissioner

 

(SGD.) JENNIFER JARDIN-MANALILICommissioner

ANNEX A

 

RULES AND PROCEDURES IN ENSURING THE VALIDITY OF TEST ITEMS IN LICENSURE EXAMINATIONS

 

Pursuant to Rep. Act No. 8981, otherwise known as the PRC Modernization Law and its Implementing Rules and Regulations and Resolution No. 2012-649, Series of 2012, the following rules and procedures are hereby formulated:

RULE 1. PRC Office/Personnel Responsible. —

1.1 The Rating Division and the Test Development, Research and Statistics Office (TDRSO) assisted by the PRC Test Consultants shall strictly provide support for the implementation of the provisions of this Resolution.

1.2 In order to facilitate the assistance to be provided by the Test Consultants to the Professional Regulatory Boards (PRBs), the latter shall be organized into Clusters as follows:

Cluster 1Engineering, Science, Technological and Marine Related Professions

Cluster 2Business, Social and Art-Related Professions

Cluster 3Medical, Health and Allied Professions

1.3 Responsibilities of the Test Consultants, Rating Division and TDRSO:

The Test Consultants shall assist the PRBs in their preparation and formulation of new items and in revising and improving administered items based on the item analysis results. They are prohibited from disclosing any and all matters relating to the formulation, preparation and improvement of test questions/items to third parties.

The Rating Division shall schedule the item analysis meeting of the Test Consultants and PRBs after the release of every licensure examination result. They shall also generate the item analysis print-out following the provisions in Rule 3. AIHTEa

The TDRSO shall coordinate the consultation meeting of the PRBs with the Test Consultants prior to the encoding of new and revised items and shall provide the accomplished Item Analysis Matrix to the PRBs on the schedules provided in Rule 4.4.2

RULE 2. Rules and Procedures in the Preparation/Formulation of Test Items and Peer Review Prior to the Encoding in the TQDBs. —

2.1 All Professional Regulatory Boards (PRBs) shall prepare/formulate on a regular basis questions for licensure examinations based strictly on the scope of the table of specifications (TOS) and with due regard to the requisites of validity and reliability.

2.2 All PRBs shall prepare/formulate their test items at least thirty (30) days prior to encoding to allow for the conduct of mandatory peer review and analysis.

2.3 The PRBs shall set a schedule with the Test Consultants for purposes of consultation, which should include but shall not be limited to peer review and preparation/formulation of test items.

2.4 All PRB Chairpersons shall submit a Monthly Peer Review Report to the Rating Division in a prescribed format.

RULE 3. Procedures in the Computation of the Item Analysis of Licensure Examinations. —

3.1 Upon release of the results of the licensure examinations, the Rating Division shall provide one set each of the Item Analysis print-out per subject (Sets A and B) to the Office of the Chairperson, copy furnished the Commission, the PRB Chairperson, and TDRSO with the following given values and data entries:

Column 1	=	item number
Column 2	=	correct answer
Column 3	=	number of examinees
		who chose OPTION A
Column 4	=	number of examinees
		who chose OPTION B
Column 5	=	number of examinees
		who chose OPTION C
Column 6	=	number of examinees
		who chose OPTION D
Column 7	=	number of examinees
		who chose OPTION E
Column 8	=	number of examinees
		who did not answer
		the item
Column 9	=	number of examinees
		who gave more than
		one answer
Column 10	=	number of examinees,
		belonging to the
		upper 30% of examinees,
		who scored correctly
Column 11	=	number of examinees,
		belonging to the lower 30%
		of examinees, who scored
		correctly
Column 12	=	Facility Index
Column 13	=	Discrimination Index

3.1.1 The terms that shall be used are as follows:

 Facility Index refers to the ease/difficulty of a test item based on the percentage of examinees who correctly answered that item from the upper 30% and the lower 30% of the groups in Sets A and B.

 Discrimination Index refers to the ability of a test item to differentiate between high and low scorers. It is the difference between those of the upper 30% and the lower 30% who answered the test over the number of items for the upper or lower group.

3.1.2 The formulae that will be used to derive the values using the given data are: HcTEa

		nU + nL
Facility Index	=	–––––––––––	x 100%
		U + L
		nU - nL
Discrimination Index	=	–––––––––––
		U
or
		nU - nL
Discrimination Index	=	–––––––––––
		L

Where:
nU	=	number of examinees who correctly answered the item from the upper 30% group
nL	=	number of examinees who correctly answered the item from the lower 30% group
U	=	number of examinees in the upper 30%
L	=	number of examinees in the lower 30%

RULE 4. Rules and Procedures for the Conduct of Item Analysis. —

4.1 The Commission, shall ascertain that Item Analysis is done by each PRB upon schedule by the Rating Division, after the release of each licensure examination result, including the walk-in examinations.

4.2 The TDRSO shall provide the Item Analysis Print-out to the Test Consultants and the PRB Chairperson, and an accomplished Item Analysis Matrix (see attached format) for every subject covered as follows:

No. of subjects	Within
1-4	2 working days
5-9	4 working days
More than 10	5 working days

4.3 The PRBs shall hold a consultation meeting with the Test Consultant assigned on the item analysis results within fifteen (15) working days after the release of the results of the written/theoretical examination. The Consultation Meeting shall be done inside the Rating Division in a designated Consultation Room.

4.4 All PRBs, together with the Test Consultants, shall endeavor to revise or improve TQs whenever necessary to ensure that test questions in the TQDB have passed all the requisites of validity and reliability.

4.5 All Professional Regulatory Board Chairpersons (PRBs) shall submit a Monthly Report on the number of reviewed/revised items that have undergone item analysis to the Rating Division in a prescribed format not later than the 25th of every month. CaEATI

RULE 5. Submission of the Results of the Item Analysis

5.1 All PRBs shall consult the Test Consultants the revised and/or new test questions on a regular basis.

5.2 The TDRSO and the Rating Division shall submit monthly reports to the Commission Chairperson using the prescribed format with the summary report of the Test Consultants. aTDcAH

Professional Regulation Commission

Published in the Official Gazette, Vol. 108, No. 22, page 2645 on May 28, 2012.