California Professional Land Surveyor Program (PLSE)

Licensure Examination for Land Surveyors to Practice in California

The California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (BPELS) regulates the practice of land surveying in California. In order to obtain a license to practice land surveying in California, a candidate is required to pass the California state-specific Professional Land Surveyor Examination (PLSE) as a supplement to the National Council for Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors (NCEES) exam. The PLSE is an annual four-hour examination that comprises essay-type design problems that assess minimally competent land surveying knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary for practice in California.

This program description covers the last 2 years of a 3-year contract that HumRRO assumed when it acquired Professional Management and Evaluation Services (PMES) in December 2006. Specific project activities are summarized below.

Project Management

HumRRO provides ongoing project planning, scheduling, and management. A technical report is provided following each administration.

Examination Development

HumRRO assumed the contract about midway through the development of the April 2007 exam and will continue through the development of the April 2008 exam. The development process includes facilitation of development and review meetings and field tests with committees of subject matter experts (SMEs). HumRRO also prepares final materials for printing.

Team Leader Meeting

In preparation for grading, HumRRO retrieves and inventories all exam materials, and then conducts a team leader meeting to finalize the grading plans, prepare training materials, and select range-finder solutions for use during grader calibration at the grading session.

Grading

To grade the candidates’ responses to the design problems, HumRRO facilitates a computer-based grading session with about forty SME graders. Following training, a practice grading is conducted using range-finder solutions. HumRRO monitors the validity and reliability of each team’s practice and actual grading throughout the session and re-trains graders as necessary.

Exam Analysis, Standard Setting, Scoring, and Reporting

Following the analysis of the examination and candidate data, HumRRO conducts a standard setting session with a panel of SMEs to set the pass/fail score. HumRRO performs standard item and test level analyses and provides this information along with candidate score reports and diagnostic reports.

Appeals Grading Session

Candidates within 15% of passing are eligible to appeal their results. HumRRO conducts an appeals grading session following the same operational procedures as the original grading session, plus any changes resulting from resolution of content validity issues. Following analysis of the appeals data, HumRRO provides a summary of the candidate results to BPELS.