Developing competency tests for Oklahoma's dietetic support personnel program

Competency tests were developed for Oklahoma's Dietetic Support Personnel Training Program to assure the professional quality of its graduates. The tests' content validity was assured through an elaborate committee validation process. The tests' reliability was investigated using split-halves methods, and their criterion-related validity was investigated using non-parametric methods to correlate workers' test scores with employers' on-the-job performance ratings. The tests' reliability indexes varied between 0.88 and 0.97, indicating their consistency. Their validity indexes varied between 0.13 and 0.78, indicating the need for further work in some test areas.