Date:         Tue, 27 Apr 1999 12:41:59 -0700
Reply-To:     "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@IBM.NET>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         "William W. Viergever" <wwvierg@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Re: certification tests (long)
Comments: To: John Iwaniszek <jiwanisz@QCHN.QUINTILES.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <85256760.00665A77.00@qrtplh01.qrtp.quintiles.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At the SAS-L BOF at Sugi, Ian sort of blew Rick Langston out of the water with a question similar to this post, that I paraphrased as "it's this: SAS is getting into Certifications and enhancing it's Services arm - hence, are we obsolete?"
 
Rick, of course, swears not.
 
Time, I guess, will tell.
 
I'd better get back to work; later.
 
 
 
At 02:41 PM 4/27/99 -0400, John Iwaniszek wrote:
>What keeps gnawing at me in this certification debate is that SAS is
>creating an
>environment that undermines my credibility (something I can do on my own).
>Previously I was an experienced SAS programmer.  Now I am an uncertified SAS
>programer.
>
>They are creating a kind of company store situation where you have to by your
>pick, shovel and dynamite from the guy that owns the mine.
>
>The lion's share of this certification issue was created by SAS, no doubt as a
>marketing idea.  Reasonable and otherwise competent professionals can debate
>the
>validity of the content domains.  We do not know anything about the
>psychometric
>properties of the tests.  No solid information is available about how the items
>or scoring criteria were developed.  We don't know how valid the constructs
>are,
>although we can guess on the basis of the content description
>(http://www.sas.com/service/edu/certify/test1.html).  In short these test might
>stink .
>
>John
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
William W. Viergever                      Voice  : (916) 483-8398
Viergever & Associates                    Fax    : (916) 486-1488
A SAS Institute Quality Partner (USA)     E-mail : wwvierg@ibm.net
Sacramento, CA 95825
 
"Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it don't matter."
                          {Satchel Paige}
----------------------------------------------------------------------------