A Successful Milestone Exam Development Summit
Almost 100 volunteers attended PAEA’s 10th annual Exam Development Summit in St. Louis, MO, from March 21-24, for an exciting and productive milestone meeting that resulted in the finalization and approval of more than 1,000 future exam items.
The annual Exam Development Summit is the culminating event to a year-long item-writing and review cycle. Over the course of the four-day meeting, PAEA’s Exam Development Board members participate in a rigorous large-group peer review of items written and reviewed over the last year to continue to improve their quality and prepare them for publication.
This year, more than 70 Exam Development Board members participated, including 11 members of PAEA’s new Cultural Humility in Assessment (CHIA) Exam Development Board. CHIA members joined each of the existing boards to help provide suggestions to make items more inclusive and to identify themes in the item bank for consideration of future form and style changes.
At the end of the meeting, 1,014 exam items were approved and will be included in upcoming future PACKRAT®, End of Curriculum™, and End of Rotation™ exams.
The Exam Development Board members were joined by 23 additional PA educators who volunteered to review and make recommendations regarding the exam blueprints and topic lists for the following PAEA exams: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Women’s Health, PACKRAT, and End of Curriculum.
Regular exam blueprint and topic list review is an important best practice that helps ensure that PAEA exams align with industry standards and remain relevant and reflective of current PA practice.
At the end of the meeting, recommendations were made for each exam. These recommendations will be reviewed by the Assessment Advisory Board and any approved changes will be communicated to programs well in advance of publication to allow adequate time for preparation.
This meeting also marked the transition of leadership in the PAEA Assessment Editor in Chief role. We said goodbye to Kim Cavanagh, DHSc, PA-C, who has served as the Assessment Editor in Chief since 2017 and has been a valued partner of PAEA for more than 20 years. Melinda Blazar, EdD, MHS, PA-C who has served as Interim Assessment Editor in Chief since October 2023 will now step into the full role. Welcome to Melinda and thank you, Kim, for your outstanding service!
The Exam Development Summit is a big undertaking for all involved, especially this year with so many new faces and activities. But of course, it was not all work and no play. On Friday evening, all meeting attendees were invited to participate in a fun evening at Top Golf where they connected with colleagues and enjoyed some lighthearted competition.
PAEA sends a heartfelt thank you to all the individuals involved in making this year’s summit a success. We are so grateful to have so many wonderful partners in exam development!
