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CRDTS’ EXAMS GO HIGH TECH!

Central Regional Dental Testing Service, Inc.

March, 2010 Volume 8, Issue 1

The CRDTS Report

Acting Editor: Lynn M. Ray, BS, RDH

DIGITAL SCORING

The electronic scoring system was put in the field February 18-20 during dual patient-based examina-tions at the University of Nebraska and the University of Colorado. IT support from Premier One, Topeka, was on hand in Nebraska in the form of Dave McDermott, Melinda Ferris and Scott Mortsdorf. Kimber McCoy, Director of Data Manage-ment, Dr. Jake Lippert, Executive Director, Lynn Ray and Audrey Ticknor served as proctors. After gaining hands-on training during the first day of the exam, Lynn Ray flew on to Denver to serve as the IT proctor at the University of Colo-rado. Understandably, some examiners were rather tentative at first, but they all quickly gained confidence, skill and enthusiasm for the new scoring technology. Many offered valuable input as to how the pro-gram might be expanded and re-fined as it continues in develop-ment. Hats off to our programmers at Premier One, to Kimber McCoy who spearheaded the effort to im-plement electronic scoring in 2010 and to all CRDTS’ officers and staff who helped make it a reality! §

Melinda Ferris of Premier One and Kimber

McCoy, CRDTS’ Director of Data Manage-

ment, set up the ESD’s and proctor station

at the University of Nebraska.

Kimber McCoy and Dave McDermott, Presi-

dent of Premiere One, confer while Dr Roger

Boltz, Chief Examiner, watches Melinda

Ferris sync the electronic equipment.

Dr. Deena Kuempel, IA, Perio Team Cap-

tain at Nebraska, uses the ESD to guide her

through all the criteria as she checks in the

first perio treatment selection.

Dr. Dennis Manning, IL, conducts his first

electronic evaluation of a restorative proce-

dure at the University of Colorado.

The University of Colorado had almost as many eager proctors

as examiners! Here to learn the system were Dr. John Cosby,

President; Penny Fudally, Hygiene ERC Chair; Liz Thompson;

Dr. Steve Holcomb, Dental ERC Chair; Deb Astroth, and Lynn

Ray, IT Proctor. Kim Laudenslager, [not pictured] Director of

Dental Hygiene Examinations, served as proctor for the Perio-

dontal Exam. Electronic scoring for dental hygiene examina-

tions will begin with the first 2010 hygiene exam in April!

IS THERE A PROCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

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BOOTING UP FOR ELECTRONIC SCORING

The CRDTS Report

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dr. Gay Derderian, WI, updates Team Cap-

tains on the 2010 Periodontal Exam

Dr. Steve Holcomb, Chairman, leads

the Dental ERC

Kimber McCoy leads an orientation on

the use of the Electronic Scoring De-

vices (ESD’s) Orientation for Chief Examiners and Team Captains

PREPARING THE LEADERS At a January 9 meeting of CRDTS’ Chief

Examiners and Team Captains, followed by

a meeting of the Dental Examination Re-

view Committee, orientations were presen-

ted to prepare for the electronic scoring of

patient-based clinical examinations.

CRDTS’ leaders, many of whom had not

yet used the Electronic Scoring Devices

(ESD’s) at manikin grading sessions, were

instructed in the use of the ESD’s, the logis-

tics of how they are to be used and main-

tained, and how the examiners are guided

through the scoring process on the ESD’s.

In addition, the flow of data to the proctor

screen was reviewed, along with the infec-

tion control issues, IT support and data

backup systems that would be available at

each exam.

As is customary at this annual orientation,

the changes in the 2010 clinical examination

were reviewed along with changes in the

Dental Examiner’s Manual.§

Spring is officially

here and we find

ourselves in the

midst of our clini-

cal examination

season for den

tistry. Our hy-

giene examinations will begin shortly

and examiners and staff are busy getting

prepared for this effort. Our 2010 dental

examinations have undergone some im-

portant previously published changes

which I will summarize briefly here.

We have implemented an “open” format

in the clinical schedule so candidates can

choose, to a large extent, when to sched-

ule their periodontal and restorative pro-

cedures. We have implemented the op-

tion of a class II posterior composite

restoration in lieu of the classic class II

amalgam procedure. Our data indicates

approximately one-third of our candi-

dates have availed themselves of this

new option, ranging from a low of 5.5%

at one site to a high of 100% at another.

We have implemented changes in our

periodontal examination which seem to

allow greater treatment selection choices

that improve the opportunity for having

a qualified patient. Changes in the scor-

ing rubric have been instituted in order

to reflect a more accurate representation

of candidate performance without in-

creasing the candidate failure rate. And

finally, we have integrated the electronic

scoring systems into our examinations

that have resulted in excellent examiner

satisfaction, improved accuracy in col-

lecting and tabulating examiner scores

and expedited patient time required in

the scoring area. Electronic scoring re-

mains a “work in progress” and as the

program continues to be refined, we are

experiencing a substantially reduced

time required to report examination re-

sults to candidates and our dental

schools. The future of this technology is

clearly exciting!

At our Steering Committee meeting,

the committee passed a unanimous resolu-

tion to refer to our organization as

“CRDTS—A National Dental and Dental

Hygiene Testing Agency”. The name

certainly fits as our examinations are ac-

cepted by more jurisdictions than any other

regional licensure examination. In fact, the

CRDTS examinations are in high demand!

We are grateful that the University of Illi-

nois-Chicago has once again scheduled

the CRDTS dental examination in 2011.

We have recently approved two requests to

add new dental and dental hygiene exami-

nations to our 2010 schedule. We are on

the cusp of having additional institutions

and states participate in the CRDTS exami-

nation processes and I hope to have more

news on these issues in the near future.

Finally, the CRDTS Steering Commit-

tee has authorized me to form a special

task force in order that we may assist the

Minnesota Board of Dentistry to create and

administer a new examination for their

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The Dental ERC members

have been very active since our last

newsletter. At our January 16, 2010

meeting, the agenda was very full

with complete discussions involving

the changes and updates for 2010,

protocols for the new electronic scor-

ing devices and review of the open

schedule format. The new policy for

viewing digital radiographs on opera-

tory monitors was presented to the

members and incorporated into the

calibration exercises.

The recommendations of the Dental

ERC were presented to both the Ex-

ecutive and Steering Committees on

March 20, 2010. The next meeting of

the Dental ERC is scheduled for April

17, 2010. At that time, the Dental

ERC will welcome any new ERC

appointees and make the final recom-

mendations for the 2011 testing cycle.

Recommendations will include issues

of uniform medical history forms, cri-

teria review and examination protocol.

The Dental Calibration Committee

(DCC) will be revisiting all of the

modules for 2010-2011 changes based

on recommendations of the examiners

from the testing sites. Replacing im-

ages with improved resources, clarify-

ing sections that were considered am-

biguous and updating the CDs to accu-

rately reflect the approved examination

will be some of the items that will

comprise the priority work list for the

DCC.

Thank you for the opportunity to work

with the talented and dedicated mem-

bers of the CRDTS Dental ERC. I

actively solicit and welcome your di-

rect input and appreciate your com-

ments and suggestions on the examiner

feedback forms.§

for the purposes of studying and analyz-

ing our examination data so that technical

reports can be created for our dental and

dental hygiene examination programs.

Through this process, CRTDS will be

able to certify to our Boards that our ex-

aminations have achieved a satisfactory

degree of validity and reliability so that

the interpretation of scores are indeed a

valid measure of candidate competency.

As you can appreciate, neither our

examinations nor our organization will

Dental Therapist program. We anticipate

that the Board will participate in under-

writing some of the expenses required to

develop this new testing program. Partici-

pants in the task force will include repre-

sentatives from CRDTS, the Minnesota

Board of Dentistry, and from the two edu-

cational institutions authorized by legisla-

tion to educate these new practitioners.

The Steering Committee also authorized

the CRDTS Executive Committee to en-

gage the service of Dr. Thomas Haladyna

remain static, but must continue to be

updated and improved. Through this

process, CRDTS will continue to grow

and remain prosperous. But most im-

portant, we will continue to provide the

highest quality examinations for use by

our states and others so that minimal

competency in clinical dentistry can be

measured with a high degree of validity

and fairness to our candidates. This is

both our purpose and commitment.§

Dental ERC Update By Stephan Holcomb, D.M.D.

giene Coordinators and Team Cap-

tains congregated in Kansas. This

committee worked hard and dili-

gently to become calibrated to en-

sure continuity at each testing site.

Their dedication and expertise will

continue to help build a valid and

reliable hygiene exam. Warm re-

gards to all of you for a wonderful

exam season!§

The 2010 Hygiene Exam season will

be an exciting adventure with the im-

plementation of electronic scoring!

Hygiene committees have been busy

meeting in Kansas City, MO to get

ready for the upcoming exam season.

The Hygiene Calibration Committee

met on January 16 to review, edit and

develop calibration exercises. Ap-

proximately one month later, the Hy-

Volume 8, Issue 1

Stephan Holcomb, DMD

Chairman, Dental ERC

Dental Hygiene ERC Update By Penny Fudally, R.D.H.

Penny Fudally, RDH, MEd

Chairman, Hygiene ERC

President’s Message (continued)

HANAU ARTICULATORS CRDTS has sev-eral surplus Hanau articula-tors that are

available for purchase by schools or by examiners for their offices. For information, contact Dr. Jake Lippert, CRDTS’ Executive Director.

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EDITORIAL COMMENTS by Lynn Ray

The CRDTS Report

With CRDTS having entered a new technological era, I

cannot help but reflect on how far we have come since I did

my first exam for CRDTS in 1976. At that time, there were

no specified performance criteria other than generalized terms

such as “good”, “fair”, “poor”, etc. Examiners picked a num-

ber out of the air that fit in the range of an appropriate descrip-

tive category. There were three examiners that were assigned

to a fixed group of candidates, and were on the clinic floor

watching everything they did. Examiners talked freely to can-

didates, and frequently looked over one another’s shoulders as

one of them did an evaluation, then the examiners often talked

about it. Final scores were computed at the end of the day as

examiners called out their scores, they were recorded by hand

and then averaged with the help of a calculator. That was the

“state of the art” of clinical evaluation in 1976. Later the

scores were typed and released in CRDTS’ central office.

Since that time, there have been several benchmark events

when CRDTS advanced the “state of the art” and applied new

technology in the examination program.

1978 Long Range Planning Project 1979 Test Development Staff Person Hired 1980 Criterion Referencing Project Launched

1981 Revised Criterion-Referenced Dental Exam

Candidate Anonymity

2 Examiners per evaluation w/cross-validation

NCR forms introduced for independent evaluations

CRDTS computerizes with a custom-written scoring

program and exams scored by keyboard entry

Statistical Analysis Program established

1996 Windows-Based computer scoring program developed

and scannable grade forms introduced

2005 CRDTS joined ADEX & a new computer program was

developed to accommodate 5-part exam.

2007 CRDTS programmer of 25 years retired; a new web-based

program was proposed.

2008 Online Applications implemented for candidates; CRDTS

announced withdrawal from ADEX as of June 2009

2009 CRDTS beta-tests electronic scoring of over 300 mani-

kins in November.

2010 First paperless patient-based exams administered and

scored electronically for both dental and dental hygiene!

MY, HOW FAR WE’VE COME! It has been a privilege for this

speaker to have been part of this journey!

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