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2025-2026Exam Report Certification Exam for Athletic Trainers May 2026BOC 2025-2026Testing Year Report1 Introduction The Board of Certification, Inc.,(BOC) is a non-profit credentialing agency that provides certification for the athletic training profession. Although it had already operated for 20yearsas a committee of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the BOC was incorporated in 1989 to govern the certification program and the standards for recertification. The entry-level certification examis designed to establish a common benchmark for the profession. The BOC serves the public interest by developing, administering and continually reviewing a certification process that reflects current standards ofpractice in athletic training. Standard Setting and Equating of ExamForms The modified Angoffprocess was used to establish the performance standard for the forms based on PA8. In April 2023, a panel of ninecertified ATsreviewed the scored items for formsPA801andPA802. The cut score for Form PA802was equated to the standard set on Form PA801.All new forms assembled under PA8, includingPA802,will be equated using the Rasch model. Thelogit equivalentwill be establishedfor the new form in reference to the standard established for PA801after the first testing window in which theyappear. ScoreReporting Because examformsare possibly of differentdifficulty, providing raw scores can be misleading. As a result, many programs, including the BOC exam, use scaledscores. Scaledscores are particularly useful because they provide the basis for meaningful long-term comparisons of results across different forms of an exam. Scaledscores are used because,over the life of every testing program, situations arise in which changes in test length occur,adecision is made to assess more or fewer areas, the number of items that are scored versus unscored (experimental) changesor formsof the test of differentdifficulty are compared.To ensure the scores have comparable meaning as these changes occur, the equated scores developed for all candidates are converted via linear transformation to a scale of 200 to 800withthe passing standardreported as 500.The BOC provides scaledscores and pass/fail standingto candidates approximately twoto fourweeks after the close of a testingwindow.Candidates pass or fail based on how their test performance comparesto the equated,criterion-referenced passingstandardfor the form taken. Analysis of the Certification Exam Candidate Performance Statistical reports are generated for each form and testingwindow. All BOC exams administered during the 2025-2026 testing year have been classified as either first-time exams or retake exams: First-time exams–exams taken by candidates who never previously sat for any form of the BOC exam Retake exams–exams taken by candidates who previously sat one or more times for the BOC exam Candidates Excluded from This Report Beginning in2018, candidates who were administered the BOC certification examvia paperandpencil(i.e., ADA candidates)have been included in the information provided in Table 1. They were not included when the statistics were computed for other years reported in Table 1. Also, for the testing year 2025-2026, these candidates(n = 8individuals, but 15testing events) areexcluded from the analyses in the rest of the report. No candidates completed less than 25% of their exam, but if there had been they would have beenexcluded from statistical reports because of the likelihood that their performance was affected by construct irrelevant variance, such as being late to the site, limited English proficiencyor other issues. There are4,380administrations of the BOC certification examincluded in this report, which represents a 15.5% increasefromthe 2023-2024testing year(3,791). The number of first-timeexams increasedfrom 2,256in 2024-2025 to 2,397in 2025-2026, which represents a 6.3% increase. Retake examsincreasedfrom 1,535in 2024-2025to 1,983 in 2025-2026, a29.2% increase.BOC 2025-2026 Testing Year Report2 Pass Rates Table 1. Historical BOC ExamCounts and Pass Rates YearFirst-timePass% PassRetakePass% PassAllPass% Pass PA7 2017-20181,6061,09167.9%1,17233428.5%2,7801,42651.3% 2018-2019*3,9743,09177.8%1,62264539.8%5,5963,73666.8% 2019-2020*3,9133,03877.6%1,62663639.1%5,5393,67466.3% 2020-2021*3,0351,87161.6%1,91657630.0%4,9512,44749.4% 2021-2022*2,6252,02777.2%1,49561140.9%4,1202,63864.0% 2022-2023*2,4271,79974.1%1,31747736.2%3,7442,27660.8% PA8 2023-2024* 2,2851,56968.7%1,59146329.1%3,8762,03252.4% 2024-2025*2,2561,68374.6%1,53544929.3%3,7912,13256.2% 2025-2026*2,3971,64068.4%1,98351025.7%4,3802,15049.1% *Note. Total numbers include ADA paper and pencil administrations. Table 2. Historical BOC ExamScaled Score Summary Statistics CohortNMeanMedianStd DevMinMax All 2025-26 4,365492.9490100.1200770 First-time2,392534.355097.7200770 Retake1,973442.845077.5200660 All 2024-253,788510.251098.5200760 First-time2,256550.156092.3200760 Retake1,532451.446075.1200670 All 2023-243,866502.0500100.4200800 First-time2,282537.154098.9200800 Retake1,584451.445078.7200750 All 2022-233,738525.0530100.0200800 First-time2,424556.657096.8200800 Retake1,314466.847077.1200710 All 2021-22 4,118532.6540107.7200800 First-time 2,624568.4580102.9200800 Retake 1,494469.848084.8200710 All 2020-214,953498.149587.7200750 First-time3,035521.552088.2200750 Retake1,911461.047072.8200690 All 2019-205,528540.253266.1358735 First-time3,912558.855865.2382735 Retake1,616495.248942.3358683 All 2018-195,591539.053266.3340729 First-time3,970557.655564.8352729 Retake1,621493.448844.0340642 All 2017-185,369536.953871.3275743 First-time4,012557.856065.1304743 Retake1,357475.047849.9275665BOC 2025-2026Testing Year Report3 ExamForm ReliabilitiesandOther Summary Data The performance of the BOC AT certification exam forms used during the year is consistent with the reporting requirements for the National Commission for Certifying Agencies accreditation.Reliability is assessedusing Cronbach’salpha (Cronbach, 1951), the most widely usedmeasure ofoverall examform reliability;Livingston-Lewis (Livingston & Lewis, 1995), a measure used for estimating the decision consistency (i.e., the reliability of pass/fail decisions based on the test);and the standard error of measurement (SEM) presented in rawscore units, a measure of the precision of the examform.The results indicate that each scored set meets general guidelines for reliabilities. In addition, the standard errors of measurement (SEM) are acceptably small, indicating that each scored set functionsas an acceptably precise measurement instrument. Summary Statistics concerning the quality of the BOC AT certification examas a measurement instrument indicate that the exam complies with psychometric requirements that pertain to certification and licensure tests.Reliability coefficients were consistent with prior exam years.Items are continually evaluated statistically and through SME after each window, and collectively over time, to ensure its relevance and validity. Estimates of equivalence across forms for the various parts of the examare acceptable. Likewise, candidate performance on all parts of the examis consistent with the public protection mission of the BOC. References American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, National Council on Measurement in Education (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. Washington, D.C.: AERA. Cronbach, L. J. (1951). Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychometrika, 16,297–334. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), U.S. Civil Service Commission, U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. Department of Justice. (1978). Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures. Federal Register, 43 (166), 38290–38315. Livingston, S. A., & Lewis, C. (1995). Estimating the consistency and accuracy of classifications based on scores. Journal of Educational Measurement, 32,179-197. National Commission for Certifying Agencies (2016). Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs. Washington, DC: Institute for Credentialing Excellence. Kuder, G. F., & Richardson, M. W. (1937). The theory of the estimation of test reliability. Psychometrika, 2, 151–160.Next >