The Foundation for the USSSA

THE FOUNDATION FOR THE USSSA INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATION IS UNDER WAY

BY LISA ZARDA

USSSA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

We are well on our way and excited to launch a new USSSA Instructor Certification in 2022. The concept has been well received, we had nearly 300 certification exam seats sold to early adopters at our National Conference!

I wanted to take a moment to outline the journey we have been on and give you an update on where we are now. We started in early 2021 working with a consultant and a small group of volunteers to help us identify if in fact we should create an instructor certification. We used a series of calls with members to identify that there would be a need for a certification to assist in training new instructors the fundamentals that ALL swim instructors should know, with less of a focus on curriculum and stroke development, as each school has their own curriculum. We also identified that Florida swim instructors must be certified from an approved list of state approved certifications, one of the most popular being WSI. We discovered there was a need and that we already had a lot of the content already created. We embarked to create a fundamental instructor certification with the longer term goal to get it nationally accredited and get it approved by the state of Florida as a swim instructor certification.

From the research done with Pause for Change, we have been working to gather together the materials we already had in order to create an online training program that would prepare new instructors both for the job and for taking the certification exam. We have a large portion of the course material gathered, and have plans to film three of the instructor sessions at the Spring Workshop to edit and include in the fundamental instructor course to help round out some of the content we didn’t have fully developed. The target is to have the course completed by mid to late March.

We are currently working with certification consultants and a

psychometrician to help us through the creation of a certification process to ensure we are following best practices and reducing bias to create a certification that could be nationally accredited. There are certain criteria we must follow along the way to ensure we are gathering feedback from a variety of stakeholders to gain credibility in the program. Manny is our psychometrician (A psychometrician is a type of scientist who studies measurements, or specifically, the measurement of people’s knowledge, skills and abilities, also known as KSAs. Most psychometricians perform their work by developing tests and examinations that measure a person’s innate or learned KSAs.).

CERTIFICATION DEVELOPMENT:

Step 1: Bring together a group of subject matter experts to identify what knowledge all swim instructors need to know, what are the basics. This group started with the outline of topics that were identified in the initial research we did uncovering important topics to cover, this is the same outline being used to develop the online course. Step 2: Send out a survey to the membership to check to be sure the knowledge statements that the group came up with are in fact what all swim instructors need to know from a basics standpoint. Step 3: Bring together a group of subject matter experts (some that participated in step one and some new people) to review what the survey results are telling us and answer the question, did we hit the mark or were we off? This group determined it would be helpful to combine knowledge statements that were related and re-organize them from being organized by age of the swimmer to being organized by skills that would then include variations by age. This group also weighted each subject category to give guidance on how important each topic is, translating into how many questions should be on the 100 question test related to each topic. Step 4: *This is where we are at in the process* Bring together a group of volunteers that have some experience writing exam questions and are subject matter experts. This group can have some people from the previous groups but also need new people. The people that wrote the course content can be involved as consultants to writing the exam questions but ideally should not be the ones to actually write the exam questions, in order to keep the testing valid. Manny will train these volunteer question writers on best practices in writing valid exam questions and will walk the group through the full process to develop the 100 question exam. Step 5: The exam will go out as a beta test to those early adopters. Those that take the exam will have to wait a little longer to find out if they pass due to analysis that will need to be completed. Manny will analyze the beta test results to determine the validity of the exam questions, making sure there are no questions that everyone is getting wrong - an indication it’s a bad question that should be replaced or re-written. He will analyze the statistics to help determine a passing score. Exam Review Committee: Established in December 2021 as a standing committee made up of volunteers, some that have been involved in the certification process and some new.

This is a new committee for USSSA and is a requirement of having a certification program. This committee is charged with establishing the criteria and maintaining the integrity of the certification. They are deciding what it takes to qualify to take the certification exam (what experience or training do you need before you can sit for the exam). They also determine important factors such as: what would be the process for recertification, if someone fails the exam what are the next steps, how often does someone need to be recertified, and what would be needed in order to be recertified. They also determine what the cost of the certification will be and then work to maintain the integrity of the exam - are there any questions on the exam that are consistent issues for exam takers and should it be changed. Two or three years from now, or later, they will determine if knowledge has changed and we need to update the exam. This committee needs a board liaison which is currently Karen Clay. Our Limitless certification consultants are providing the framework documents and guiding these initial discussions to ensure we are creating what is needed and using best practices.

What is the role of the Education , IT and SA Committees in this process?

As mentioned above, early on in this process we identified that we already had some content that would be useful for the training course. We have asked the Education Committee to provide select content from the PreK course that is in development to also include in the fundamental training course. They have worked on a new video that will be in both the fundamental training course as well as the PreK course once complete. We have also asked IT and SA to provide select content from their course. Something that all swim instructors should know and it should be basic/beginner in nature. We will still encourage swim instructors with interest in working with PreK, Infants and Special Abilities to take the full courses we offer. Seeing some of the content repeated makes for improved learning as we need to see things more than once to fully learn the content.

Timeline: The exam question writing is scheduled to take place in January/ February. Beta testing we estimate to run March - May with final review and scoring being set by June/July. The exam review committee will be meeting multiple times in January and February to work to establish the criteria needed in order to be ready to launch the beta testing. Online Platform: At the same time all of this is going on, we are working with Fabric, our online platform, to ensure we are ready to handle the requirements of an online certification exam. There will be an integration with a third party that would proctor the online exam to ensure cheating and copying of the certification test is not taking place. This is an exciting time for USSSA and we are grateful for all the volunteers that have been dedicating their time and talents to turn this into a reality.

A FEW NOTES ABOUT THE CERTIFICATION:

The certification will be the 100 question exam that with a passing score you receive the certification, re-certification requirements are TBD.

The course that is being pulling together can be prerequisite training taken prior to taking the exam, but does not have to be - in other words someone could be qualified to take the exam with prior training from different sources and/or on the job experience - this is being outlined by the exam review committee The terms “accreditation” and “certification” are sometimes used interchangeably, however, they are not synonymous. Certification is used for verifying that an individual demonstrates proficiency or competence on standardized criteria that relate to a specific field. Accreditation is used to verify that a program, organization or institution’s operations are evaluated according to established qualifications or standards.

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