Examination Accreditation

Introduction

Because the validity and defensibility of licensing exams are critically important to regulatory agencies, the ARELLO® Examination Accreditation Program provides an independent review and evaluation of licensing examinations and the program methodology used in developing and maintaining them.

To be accredited by ARELLO®, real estate licensing examination development programs must be found to comply with ARELLO® Guidelines for Accreditation and generally accepted principles of examination development, such as, but not limited to, those identified in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. One way for real estate regulators to help ensure that examinations used for real estate licensing meet these high standards is to require the ARELLO® examination accreditation in requests for proposals and contracts for examination services.

By requiring the ARELLO® Examination Accreditation in requests for proposals and contract specifications for examination services, jurisdictions can be confident and trust that a systematic, independent review by subject matter and measurement experts is "Ensuring Standards in Examination Development" that are both valid and defensible.

The ARELLO® Accreditation could be a significant link in the chain of evidence for validity and legal defensibility of a real estate licensing examination should any organization that has an examination program accredited by ARELLO® be called upon to defend its examination program.

ARELLO® Examination Accreditation means:

• Independent Review and Evaluation
• Confidence and Protection
• Defensible and Valid Standards
• Enhanced Examination Quality
• Facilitation of License Recognition

Purpose and Objectives

The ARELLO® Examination Accreditation Program exists to promote the welfare, interests, and development of licensing through evaluation and accreditation of licensing examination programs administered by jurisdictional licensing agencies (Procedure 30) and to promote licensure recognition through increased recognition of examination results among jurisdictions. The ARELLO® examination accreditation program helps to ensure quality in examination development and generates revenue that the organization uses to support jurisdictions in the administration and enforcement of real estate license laws to promote and protect the public interest. Objectives are to encourage greater uniformity of legislation, regulation, and practice as well as increased recognition of others' licenses among jurisdictions around the world through the Examination Accreditation Committee's activities (Procedure 6).

Accredited Examination Providers

Examination Accreditation Program Resources

ARELLO® offers the following resources to assist you in becoming more familiar with examination development and the accreditation program.

• ARELLO® Examination Accreditation Program Highlights
• ARELLO® Examination Accreditation Program Guidelines
• ARELLO® Basic Item Writing Principles
• ARELLO® Mathematics Item Principles & Examples
• ARELLO® White Paper on Determining Minimum Passing Scores
• Considerations in Developing Examination RFPs
• Top Ten Questions & Complaints on Licensing Exams

Contact ARELLO® for additional information about the Examination Accreditation Program.

Examination Accreditation Application

Jurisdictions Utilizing the ARELLO Examination Accreditation Program

Jurisdictions NOT Utilizing the Program