Assessing
Mediator Competency
And Mediator Certification
In The United States
PETER MAIDA
ABSTRACT
Country:
U.S.A.
Language:
English
This presentation will discuss the topics of assessing mediator competency and certification of mediators and present a brief description of a number of the most important initiatives in the United States to develop measures of mediator competency. Second, it will describe the possible ways in which these measures would be utilized in a mediator certification system. For more than fifteen years, various efforts have been put forth in the United States to address two related issues: mediator competency; and certification of mediators. Interest in assessing mediator competency has come from a number of sources. First, mediators are interested in improving their skill, knowledge and ability as mediators. Second, organizations throughout the country including court systems, corporations, governmental, and non-government agencies want to have ways to assess the competency of people who provide mediation services. These services are provided either by employees within organizations or are provided by mediators outside organizations. Assessing competency has its critics also. Some think you cannot measure much of what a mediator does. Alongside the development of measures of competency has been the related issue of certification of mediators. Certification must be distinguished from licensure, an activity that is managed by a jurisdiction such as a state. Certification is a system of determining whether a person has achieved a certain level of skill through some testing measure. Testing measures that have been suggested include paper-pencil tests and observation. Testing would assess a person's mediation knowledge, skill, and ability. Currently, quite a few courts throughout the United States "certify" mediators using as a measure whether mediators have had a 40-hour mediation training, have a experience mediating, and have been supervised by an experienced mediator. However, critics of this type of certification suggest that completing training and having experience doesn't necessarily mean that a mediator is competent. Certification would be based on the completion of a valid and reliable test. Questions that will be discussed include: How do you construct a test of competency?; Who would administer the test?; and How would people prepare for the test?
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