DEVELOPING WASTEWATER LABORATORY CERTIFICATION EXAMINATIONS

The mission of the Association of Boards of Certification (ABC) is to provide an organization for certifying authorities that will facilitate communication and cooperation. Its goal is to help environmental certifying authorities do a better job by sharing information, know-how, and resources. One task ABC does to fulfill its mission is to develop certification exams for a variety of wastewater-related fields that are used by member certifying authorities. The ABC wastewater laboratory analyst exams are developed by the ABC Wastewater Laboratory Validation and Examination Committee (WW Lab V&E Committee). The purpose of this paper is to explain how the certification exams administered to laboratory analysts are developed and updated. The main topics that will be discussed are: exam development; question review; and exam updating.