TIFTON—The Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College’s Testing Center recently received national certification from the National College Testing Association.
The NCTA is a non-profit organization that promotes professionalism and high-quality service in the administration of testing programs and offers certification to college and university test centers that demonstrate exemplary practices. Its membership of more than 2,200 consists of testing professionals as well as companies offering test-related products and services.
Criteria for certification are based on the NCTA Professional Standards and Guidelines, which were developed to guide post-secondary test centers in the delivery of quality testing programs.
ABAC’s testing center provides a wide range of services, including online testing, program-specific entrance and exit exams, proctoring services (independent learning), and placement testing.
“We work to serve not only the ABAC community but the community here in Tifton and the surrounding communities,” said testing center coordinator Taylor Horton. “We provide professional testing services for various different platforms.”
Testing services include math and English placement testing, the ETS Major Field Test (MFT) for biology, College-Level Examination Program (CLEP), DANTES Subject Standardized Tests (DSST), eCore testing, the Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators (GACE), Graduate Record Examination (GRE) testing, Georgia History and Constitution testing, HESI A2 assessment for anyone entering a nursing program, Pearson Vue certification exams, exam proctoring for distance learning, and testing accommodations for students who demonstrate a need for assistance with test-taking.
“The NCTA certification is super important,” Horton said. “They are the ones who set the standards, so it’s really important to gain membership with them. ABAC has subscribed to and adhered to their rules for quite some time, but gaining certification was a big deal.”
Horton added that gaining certification not only proves that ABAC’s testing center meets the national standards but it also provides access to more resources and to attend NCTA conferences.
“It’s a way to connect with everyone that’s doing the same thing we are and see how they do things, how we can do things better,” she said. “We are a very small testing center and gaining that certification and being able to say that we do meet that standard, that we do that … it’s awesome that we were able to accomplish that.”
In a statement, the NCTA said that the ABAC Testing Center is one of a growing number of centers in the country to complete the certification process.
