NATIONAL RIGHTS-OF-WAY SYLLABUS BREAKS NEW GROUND
News Date May 06, 2008
As part of a five-year cooperative agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Pesticide Programs (EPA/OPP), the NASDA Research Foundation (NASDARF) is coordinating the development of a national certification examination and educational materials for rights-of-way vegetation control along the nation's roads, railways, pipelines, and utilities corridors. Pesticide applicator exams are usually developed independently by each state and lack consistency with respect to content and standards. This lack of consistency leads to reciprocity concerns among states, and raises questions regarding the professional credibility of states' testing programs.
Drew Martin of Purdue University's cooperative extension service has been recruited by the NASDARF to work collaboratively with various rights-of-way trade associations and EPA/OPP to develop a comprehensive national competency exam for those who apply pesticides to rights-of-way areas. Purdue University's work with the industry will help assure industry endorsement of the project, and establish a resource pool that represents professional and operational diversity for the purposes of developing a national right-of-way exam. Drew also plans to work closely with Daniel Wixted and Ron Gardner of Cornell University on the development of the exam, as well as a rights-of-way syllabus for competency. The development of a syllabus is a ground breaking step because it will replace the development of a traditional training manual. This has numerous benefits for all parties involved in assuring the competency of the nation's pesticide applicator workforce.
The use of a syllabus is supported by a strong basis in educational theory. It will act as a national testing configuration; be complimentary to, rather than competitive with, state-specific training materials; and serve as a training outline, guidance, and guidepost for improved training and training processes. The syllabus also offers very specific benefits to state departments of agriculture and other certifying agencies because it easily supplements state programs, rather than being intrusive. It also provides: 1) a basis and excellent starting point for additional state-specific training materials; 2) appeals to robust as well as less demanding rights-of-way certification programs; 3) allows for the use and reinforcement of existing materials, and 4) serves as an outreach and education device by reflecting the knowledge needed by the regulated community to meet competency standards.
The NASDARF expects the Purdue-Cornell collaboration on this project to yield high quality products for use by certifying agencies. Both the national exam and accompanying syllabus will be ready for use by state and tribal certification authorities by June 2009. (Contact: Dick Herrett)