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As those with the CFLE credential know, we have been successfully administering the Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) exam since 2007. In the fall of 2017, NCFR began piloting a Family Life Education (FLE) assessment exam, which is intended to assist colleges and universities in assessing their Family Life Education curriculum. Because this type of exam is distributed and scored quite differently from our CFLE exam, we chose to pilot it with a few schools to ensure the validity of the exam, establish a reliable distribution process, and work out any kinks in the administration process since it is offered only in a paper-and-pencil format and uses on-campus proctors.

In the spring of 2018, we administered the FLE assessment exam to three schools of varying enrollment size and after receiving the results from all three schools, we evaluated the test through an item analysis and revised and replaced several questions. The FLE Exam Committee reviewed and approved the revised test, which is now available to anyone interested in assessing their program. Following is information on the FLE assessment exam.

Exam Development - Items for the FLE assessment exam were developed using the same criteria as the exam used to award the CFLE credential to individuals. Both the CFLE exam and the FLE assessment exam use items pulled from a single NCFR test bank. However, items will appear on only one test form; questions from the CFLE exam will not be used on the FLE assessment exam and vice versa.

It is important to note that the FLE assessment exam will not result in CFLE certification for those who successfully complete it. The FLE assessment exam will be used only to help Family Science programs evaluate how well their program is covering the 10 Family Life Education Content Areas identified as representing the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for effective practice in the field of Family Life Education.

Paper and Pencil Administration. To keep the cost of the assessment exam within reach of most programs, it will be administered by paper and pencil rather than computer-based testing (although the latter may be an option in the future). Here’s how it works: a school places an order for the test with NCFR; our testing vendor ships printed copies of the exam directly to the school via a secure shipping method; the exams are administered by an approved onsite proctor; the proctor ships the exams back to the testing vendor the same day.

Data Reporting. Following the exam completion, the exam data is sent to NCFR and staff at NCFR will prepare and forward to the school a report that includes the following data:

Aggregated student data: Average data for all students’ performance (e.g., the average score for all students was 80%)

Aggregated student data for each of the 10 family life content areas: Average data for all students’ performance in each of the 10 content areas (e.g., average score for all students in Content Area 1 = 60%, Content Area 2 = 84%)

Comparison of aggregated student data for all content areas combined: Data comparing students’ average performance to the average performance of students from peer institutions, which would be identified only by an ID number (e.g., the average score for all students from University 1 = 79%, University 2 = 84%). This information will not be available until enough students have completed the exam from a sufficient number of schools.

Comparison of aggregated student data for each of the 10 Family Life Education content areas: Data comparing students’ average performance in each of the 10 content areas to the average performance in each of the 10 content areas of students from peer institutions (e.g., the average data for all students’ performance in each of the 10 content areas at University 1: Content Area 1 = 75%, Content Area 2 = 77%, and University 2: Content Area 1 = 83%, Content Area 2 = 83%). Again, comparison data will not be available until there is enough data to compare.

Individual student data: Individual student data for overall performance as well as for each of the 10 FLE content areas will be provided (e.g., Candidate #222113 overall score = 81%; Candidate #222113: Content Area 1 = 72%, Content Area 2 = 86%). Note that students will be identified only by an ID number. Because the intent of the FLE assessment exam is to assess how well the program is covering the FLE curriculum, it is very important that scores are not directly connected to any one student and that the results of the exam are not shared with the students who complete the exam.

Fees and Timeline. All programs will be assessed a one-time setup charge of $200. Schools will be responsible for the cost of $50 per exam plus all shipping costs to send the exam booklets to the school and back to the test vendor. NCFR requires at least a 30-day notice for administering the exam. Information on the FLE assessment exam including ordering information can be found on the NCFR website.

Please contact me if you have any questions about the FLE assessment exam. NCFR is excited to be able to respond to a need expressed by the membership and to provide this service to the discipline of Family Science.