Beyond High-Stakes Assessment

High-stakes assessments in higher education serve a gate-keeping function for institutional and programmatic accreditation and determine outcomes for students on state boards and professional licensing and certification examinations. The assessments are defined by specific characteristics such as: a single, summative examination, a clear measure of success and failure, and significant consequences for candidates. Controversial aspects are related to whether they actually measure individual achievement or meaningful skills, the current mismatch between education and workplace needs, and the increased use of technology in instruction. Can high-stakes testing evolve and move with the times?

The essential language needs to develop the performance of female Arabic language teachers in light of the Professional Licensing Standards document for teachers in Saudi Arabia from the viewpoint of teachers and supervisor in Madinah: الاحتياجات اللغوية اللازمة لتطوير أداء معلمات اللغة العربية في ضوء وثيقة معايير الترخيص المهني للمعلمين بالسعودية من وجهة نظر معلماتها ومشرفاتها بالمدينة المنورة

The study aimed at identifying the essential language needs to develop the performance of female Arabic language teachers in light of the document Standards for Professional Licensing for teachers in Saudi Arabia from the viewpoint of teachers and supervisors in Madinah. To achieve this, we have followed a descriptive survey approach where we designed a questionnaire to determine the language needs of female Arabic language teachers. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of female Arabic language teachers and supervisors in the Medina area, Their number reached (756), including (735) female teachers and (21) supervisors, using statistical software (SPSS). The results of the survey demonstrated (73) essential language need to develop the performance of female Arabic language teachers, distributed in the two fields: language skills and linguistics. The results showed also that the overall degree of the language needs I got an overall average (4.15 out of 5), i.e. with a (high) degree, and at the level of the two main areas; (The domain of language skills) got an average of (4.30) with a degree (very large), and it came in first place (the axis of speaking and reading in a correct and sound language, with an average of (4.42), followed by (the axis of proper written expression and taking into account correct spelling with an average of (4.25), then It is followed by (the axis of comprehension of the audio and reading text, with an average of (4.24), all of which are in degrees (very large), while (the field of linguistic sciences skills) got an arithmetic average of (4) with a degree (large), while the axes of the field came in first place, the axis (Grammar). And morphology) with an average of (4.36), to a degree (very large), followed by the (Literature) axis with an average of (3.99), then the (Rhetoric and Criticism) axis with an average of 3.98, then the (Linguistics) axis with an average of 3.96, and came in the last rank (The performances and rhyme averaged (369), all with a degree of appreciation (high). and there were no statistically significant differences between the female teachers ’and supervisors’ views on those needs. Also, there are no statistically significant differences between the responses of female Arabic language teachers concerning language needs due to two variables: years of experience, and the educational level in all units, except for the comprehension of the audio and readable text unit that is attributed to the variable of years of experience in favor of experienced teachers (from 5-10) years. While the comprehension of the audible and read text, and literature units were attributed to the variable of the educational level in favor of female secondary school teachers. Based on the results, the researchers recommended programs for training female Arabic language teachers and designing professional development programs in line with language needs, and engaging female Arabic language teachers in determining the language needs necessary to develop their professional performance in a way that enables them to perform their future roles with high efficiency.

Medicaid reimbursement for pharmacist services: A strategy for the pharmacy profession

Purpose Reimbursement for pharmacist services is complex due to a different set of rules for each payer. State legislatures, regulators, and professional licensing bodies have expanded the scope of practice for pharmacists in many states, representing a significant opportunity for third-party payers, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to enable and expand patient access to, and receipt of, care from pharmacists. This paper will introduce the term “other licensed practitioner” and describe how a state Medicaid program may include covered services provided by a pharmacist practitioner using the Medicaid state plan amendment process. Summary In recent years, states have made great strides in training and educating high-quality pharmacist practitioners, expanding the scope of practice in all states, incorporating a credentialing and privileging process, and expanding the use of collaborative practice agreements with physicians and nurse practitioners. Pharmacists are well-positioned, essential members of the healthcare team, providing a spectrum of clinical and prevention services that increase access to care and improve health outcomes. Conclusion A broad coalition of stakeholders including states, the federal government, pharmacy organizations, and other parts of the health ecosystem, working together, can better address the health needs of a state and its Medicaid beneficiaries. Pharmacist practitioners across different settings of care can augment public health efforts, as well as primary and specialty care practices. State efforts should include enrollment and reimbursement of pharmacist practitioners as Medicaid providers for pertinent Medicaid-covered services.

Addressing the geoethics skills gap through co-curricular approaches

Geoethics as a broad and universal professional topic has become emergent over the last decade. Though the need of ethical conduct by geoscientists has always existed, the uneven professional licensing and standards for geoscientists as well as high-profile misconduct by geoscientists is driving employer demand for geoethical competency. Geoscience degree programmes in the USA are poorly equipped to teach geoethics beyond academic honesty and research integrity. One means to address the deficiency is through proactive engagement by the community and students in co-curricular activities to address specific needs. Co-curricular activities such as internships, mentoring, society and club activity, and professional development courses already exist, but are not well-coupled to the formal education process. For geoethics, the American Geosciences Institute (AGI) and the American Institute of Professional Geologists (AIPG) found that online on-demand professional development courses are a potentially effective co-curricular approach. The courses focus on the intentional learning framework, and experience shows that formal geoethics courses are in greater demand than other professional and technical topics in the on-demand course space. The challenge remains exposure of the opportunities to students and consistent acceptance by faculty and employers in the geosciences.

Precarious Education-to-Work Transitions: Entering Welfare Professions under a Workfarist Regime

This article looks at the process of education-to-work transitions in female-dominated welfare professions within the Slovenian post-crisis context marked by a workfarist agenda. It departs from a scholarship that conceptualises precarity as a transitional vulnerability and disaffiliation exacerbated by workfarist policies to explore the contemporary experience of those trying to achieve professional integration under a volatile workfarist regime. The findings reveal a mismatch between established regulations for early career recruitment and professional licensing and actual chances in the labour market to meet these requirements through available workfarist non-standard, entry-level jobs/schemes designed for particular status and/or socio-demographic groups. It gives new evidence that European workfare regimes exacerbate precarity and a novel understanding of state-manufactured precarisation as an intersectional process of marginalisation and discrimination that not only hinders integration into welfare professions, but also downloads the costs of social reproduction on the next generation, causes precarious ageing and widens intersectional differences.

Cosmetology Field and It’s Significance for Education and Industry Sector

The purpose of this paper was to identify the trends in cosmetology field. This paper also provides the definition of cosmetology, cosmetics, and other pertinent terms. Gathered articles were identified using electronic databases such as Google Scholar, Science Direct and Eric from year 2010 to 2019. These reviews found that training and earning professional licensing are crucial for cosmetologist to sustain in the beauty industry. Furthermore, these reviews bring researcher to relate that there is a lack of study in cosmetology education and teaching. Whereas, this cosmetology field is vast and growing nowadays. So that, the results of this study suggest that future study needs to be conducted to examine the educational intervention on effective learning and teaching strategies in cosmetology fields. This will provide more information required for the development of cosmetology curriculum to support students’ academic interests, knowledge and skills in cosmetology.