Why doesn’t DANB release copies of old examinations?
Why does DANB assess an application processing fee?
Why don’t DANB test questions cover “new” materials, which dental assisting programs are required to teach?
How are passing standards (‘cut scores’) set?
How should educators interpret the data presented in the Program Performance Reports?
How should my students interpret their overall scores?
How should my students interpret their subtest performance results?
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Why doesn’t DANB release copies of old examinations?
Examinations administered by DANB are constructed and administered according to strict content requirements. Content required is defined through expert test construction panels and through detailed field research. Each exam item costs DANB between $100 and $150 to create (in payment to item writers, exam committee meetings, and staff time to edit,). We do not release old exams because of the cost to DANB of depleting our item bank.
In addition, there are only so many items that can be written on a specific topic. If we were to release copies of old examinations, we would be unable to use any of the released items on future examinations. Additionally, releasing old examinations may mislead our candidates. As time passes, areas such as dental materials and infection control protocols change. If we release old tests, outdated questions may be viewed as accurate, causing confusion for our candidates.
Because DANB cannot release old examinations, The DANB Review was developed. This key reference tool, now in its 3rd edition, features 230 sample examination questions and provides an answer, rationale and reference for each question, plus bibliographic notations to assist in planning studies and review. This guide includes separate review sections (including sample questions) for all national DANB exams. Also included are detailed exam blueprints for each exam – to which each item must be referenced. In addition, DANB publishes a Glossary of Dental Assisting Terminology, in which all dental terms used on DANB exams are defined from a clinical perspective.
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Why does DANB assess an application processing fee?
DANB is a nonprofit corporation and, as such, must charge fees to cover operating costs. DANB does not receive grants or donations from other agencies. DANB’s income is generated almost solely through examination and renewal fees. As you can imagine, there are many steps involved in registering a candidate for a DANB examination. Applications are opened and sorted, fees are processed and posted, and individual candidate computer records are created. Each application is reviewed to ensure that eligibility requirements are met and confirmation or incomplete letters are generated to finish the review process. These processing steps are time consuming, but are crucial in determining who is truly eligible to test, and in creating a reliable and up-to-date candidate database
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Why don’t DANB test questions cover “new” materials, which dental assisting programs are required to teach?
There is always a lag between content covered on certification exams, which are mandated to reflect the current practice of a profession and “new” material taught in a formal educational program. Certification exams test “what is.” Educational curricula covers what “should be,” or what “soon will be.”
As a certification board, DANB has no authority to establish or maintain curricula. In fact, we may have little impact upon courses and content offered at schools. This is not out of disinterest, but rather out of ethical necessity. Courses should not be geared to the test. Rather, courses should provide future dental assistants with all of the skills/techniques needed in the work place, rather than providing “test knowledge.”
DANB’s examinations are intended to test national dental assisting basic techniques. Educational tests used in dental assisting schools cover “new” material, sometimes with greater emphasis on state-allowed functions. Certification examinations, which are often used to meet a state’s licensure or registration requirements, or to meet other job requirements in a state, focus on the established, job-related procedures practiced nationally. This is true for all certification exams, not just those for dental assistants.
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How are passing standards ('cut scores') set?
Passing requirements are based on content, not percentage correct. The DANB Board has adopted a nationally-accepted, psychometrically sound standard-setting process that requires candidates to answer items correctly at or above certain levels of difficulty across the content areas. A different standard is constructed for each examination, based upon required content.
DANB’s national exams are computer adaptive tests (CAT). CAT exams are designed to have candidates answer questions based on their individual ability level. Each DANB national exam is composed of an item bank. Each question in the item bank has a difficulty measure. Difficulty measures are first determined when questions are pretested. Each year a certain percentage of the questions on DANB’s national exams are pretest questions. This means the questions do not count towards a candidate’s pass/fail status. Instead, we are gathering information on the questions to ensure they perform properly. After we are sure a question is performing properly, it becomes “live” and now counts towards a candidate’s pass/fail status.
During a CAT exam, candidates are given questions based on their ability and the blueprint of the exam. Candidates first receive a question at or near the difficulty determined to be the pass point for that exam. If a candidate answers a question correctly, the next question they receive will be a little harder. If this question is answered correctly, the next one is a little harder and so on. If a candidate answers a question incorrectly, the next question they receive is a little easier.
Through this process a candidate’s ability level is determined. A candidate’s ability level must be at or above the pass point determined by DANB’s Exam Committees and approved by the DANB Board in order to pass the test. All candidates must receive the same distribution of items, which means the same percentage of questions covering each content area. This distribution is determined by DANB’s Task Analysis which is approved by DANB’s Board.
DANB has set up the CAT exams so all candidates receive the same number of questions. For example, all candidates who take DANB’s RHS exam will answer 100 questions based on the RHS exam blueprint. Valid standard setting procedures are, by their nature, highly technical statistical processes. Rest assured that DANB’s national exams would not be accredited by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies unless our psychometric processes were appropriate and yielded valid, reliable exam results.
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How should educators interpret the data presented in the Program Performance Reports?
Program Performance Reports are mailed to Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA)-accredited dental assisting programs twice each year. The first report goes out in July/August and includes results from January through June. The second reports goes out in January/February and includes the results from the previous year (January through December). Any group with a DANB school code may request a Program Performance Report at any time during the year, for any timeframe.
The Program Performance Reports include the Certified Dental Assistant (CDA), Radiation Health and Safety (RHS), Infection Control (ICE) and General Chairside (GC) exam results. Exam candidates are only identified by DANB ID, not by name or Social Security Number. For each candidate, the program director will be able to see when the exam was taken, graduation year, home state of candidate, whether the candidate earned the CDA certification mark, and the status and score on each of the component exams. The average performance for the CODA-accredited schools in the same state, all CODA-accredited schools, and the performance of all other candidates is provided for comparison.
The names of students are not provided if there are fewer than five students, to meet national confidentiality guidelines for exam candidates.
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How should my students interpret their overall scores?
DANB presents exam results as scaled scores. DANB scaled scores range from a low of 100 to a high of 900, with 400 being required to pass each exam. DANB also provides subtest performance ratings, which provide useful information regarding each candidate’s performance in each of the content areas on the exams.. The passing scores are related solely to candidate performance on each exam in its entirety, and not to any combination of subset scores.
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How should my students interpret their subtest performance results?
DANB provides three descriptions for subtest performance: Low Average, Average, High Average. DANB highly recommends studying in areas in which the candidate receives a descriptor of “Low Average.” DANB recommends reviewing areas in which the candidate receives a descriptor of “Average.” A descriptor of “High Average” in a subtest indicates a solid understanding of the area.
When deciding which areas to focus any future studying it is important to consider both the subtest performance result and the percentage of questions on the exam for each subtest. For example, if subtest A covers 35% of the exam and a result of ‘Average’ was received and subtest B covers 5% of the exam and a result of ‘Low Average’ was received, it would be advantageous to review both areas but focus on subtest A a little more because it contains more questions and leaves the candidate more room for improvement. Subtest performance results are ONLY provided to help candidates focus any future studying in areas in which they performed relatively low. When subtest results are calculated, only the items from that subtest are considered in the ‘scoring’ formula. Each subtest is considered as “its own exam,” when calculating subtest performance and converting these to a subtest performance result.
However, because of examination reliability considerations, a pass/fail decision is made on the exam as a whole so performance on all subtests put together is considered when making a pass/fail decision on the entire exam. When DANB calculates subtest results, we do not take into consideration the percentages of each subtest. That is, there is no weighting of subtests involved in the determination of “Low Average,” “Average” and “High Average.” Each subtest is evaluated independently to determine these comparative candidate ratings.
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