Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This PCC state exam fad is a passing fancy

Photos and story by James Hill

One of the state Legislature’s key performance measures for community colleges is how students do on certification and licensure exams. In this realm, Portland Community College is getting straight A’s.

From this past year, PCC had five programs achieve perfect pass rates from this past testing cycle – Aviation Maintenance Technician (19 students), Ophthalmic Medical Technology (16), Dental Hygiene (21), Health Information Management (14) and Radiography (32). Other programs have achieved a 92-percent or better pass rate – Certified Medical Assistants (95 percent), Nursing (94 percent), Medical Lab Technician (93 percent), Emergency Medical Services (93 percent) and Dental Assisting (92 percent).

This is on top of PCC’s transferring students having a better grade-point average (3.11) than continuing Oregon University System students (3.08). All data is courtesy of PCC’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

At Rock Creek’s Welding Program, PCC had 40 students take an all-position weld test this past academic year and 38 of them passed the tests – a 95-percent pass rate. These tests are sent to a third party inspection firm outside of the college and are measured against a national standard – the American Welding Society’s D1.1 Structural Steel Welding Code.

“This is the code that is used to inspect the erection of high rise building across America,” said Matt Scott, welding instructor. “Hence, the certification tests are a great objective measure of the students’ skills and it positions them well to be employed.”

These successful students will help staff a position that is in demand locally. Welding is a skill used by many trades: sheet metal workers, ironworkers, diesel mechanics, boilermakers, carpenters, marine construction, steamfitters, glaziers, repair and maintenance personnel in applications ranging from the sculpture home hobbyist to heavy fabrication of bridges, ships and many other projects.

This coming licensure exam season for Dental Hygiene features 19 students, who have already passed two out of the required three board exams to apply for their Oregon Dental Hygiene License. Their last exam is the Dental Hygiene Clinical Board test at the end of June.

“I have no doubt they will be successful with this exam as well,” said Josette Beach, director of PCC’s Dental Program. “I contribute their success to the support and excellent instruction provided by the faculty, as well as the students’ individual determination and desire to succeed in reaching their professional goal.”

The Dental Hygiene curriculum is designed to prepare students for the state and regional licensure examinations and for the clinical practice of dental hygiene. In addition, the courses are fully transferable to four-year institutions, and the program is accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation and endorsed by the American Dental Association.

Now is the season that many of the students in these programs start the state licensing exam process or are in the middle of taking them. For the radiography students, licensure tests start again in August and the program’s leader said she expects more perfect scores.

“Our current second-year students will complete the program in August and then take their registry exam,” said Virginia Vanderford, director of medical imaging at the college. “I couldn’t be prouder of my students and faculty. I feel their success has a lot to do with a solid curriculum, dedicated and fantastic faculty and clinical sites and very determined students.”