Educational Program Characteristics and Pass Rates on the National Physical Therapy Examination

Journal of Physical Therapy Education,  Spring 2005  by Mohr, Thomas,  Ingram, Debbie,  Hayes, Sherrill,  Du, Zuru

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The variables were entered in the model in their order of importance for predicting the pass rate. The accreditation status accounted for 18.2% of the variance in pass rate. When the number of PhD and EdD faculty was entered into the equation, together both variables accounted for 27% of the variance. When the number of years of preprofessional and professional coursework combined was entered into the equation, the three variables accounted for 30.2% of the variance. Only these three variables were included in the stepwise regression analysis before the analysis was terminated. The three variables included in the final model were not redundant with each other, each of them making a unique contribution over and above the contributions made by the other two variables, each with a significance level of .000.

A subsequent ANOVA and post-hoc analysis between the pass rate and the preprofessional and professional coursework combined revealed a significant difference between 4 and 7 years and between 5 and 7 years of combined coursework. There was no significant difference between 6 and 7 years of combined coursework (Table 6). Additional ANOVA and post-hoc analysis revealed no significant differences between the years of professional coursework, but did find a significant difference between the number of years of preprofessional coursework. The results of that analysis showed a significant difference between 2 and 4 years of preprofessional coursework, but no significant difference between 3 and 4 years of preprofessional coursework (Table 6).

DISCUSSION

Neither the Evaluative Criteria for Accreditation of Education Programs for the Preparation of Physical Therapists1·^ nor A Normative Model of Physical Therapist Professional Education2^ define the design for individual physical therapy programs. Each program is free to design a model that they believe works best for them in their particular setting and institution. However, programs are required to provide outcome data from their graduates that ultimately justify the design and content of the curriculum. In addition, it is now an expectation by CAPTE that accredited programs must maintain at least an 80% average pass rate on the NFfE over a 3-year period. The results of this study suggest that a graduate's performance on the NPTE examination is determined in part by some aspects of program design.

Student characteristics have been explored previously in regards to pass rates on the National Physical Therapy Examination.5,7 The purpose of this study was to examine correlations between program characteristics and pass rates on the NPTE. The results of this study found that 30.2% of the variance on the pass rate was accounted for by the variables of accreditation status, number of PhD and EdD faculty, and total length of program. Thus, 69.8% of the variance in pass rates was unaccounted for in our study.

The accreditation status (ie, probationary or accredited) had the highest correlation with pass rate, and accredited programs tended to have a higher pass rate on the NPTE than programs that were on probation. Although our results give no indication as to why accreditation status is a predictor of the pass rate in the regression model, this finding serves to validate the CAPTE process of accreditation in determining how well educational programs meet, or do not meet, the criteria for accreditation.