CompTIA Testing Center Requirements for a Public High School

[MarkGrohman]

It would be nice to sign up my new public high school as a CompTIA Testing Center so that we could test in-house for certifications besides the ITF+.

Would we be required to allow anyone to sign up and test at our school? I don't think we can do that as a public school.

 

[Gregory Childers]

Individual test centers can set the number of available seats, the dates, and the hours and can offer certain exams. I know of organizations set up as Pearson Vue testing centers so they can exclusively use it to test their employees. They set it up with no open appointments. When someone needs to test, they open the schedule for that day and time range, register the person for the exam, and then close the registration window before some random person on the internet attempts to register during that time.

 

[Rostam - KVCC]

Mark,

Basically what Gregory said, At my previous employment they had a room that was a Pearson Vue testing center which I would open up for our students a couple time a year. There is a process to it where you basically show Pearson Vue the room layout and you are then certified for X number of stations. In my case it was 5. Back when my program would only get 1 or 2 certs a year this was fine. When I took over It would take days to test all of my students.

Now for ITF+ and Cloud Essentials you can take advantage of their Client Proctor Delivery exams. Very easy to sign up and can administer the exam practically in your computer lab. I would use it for mass ITF+ certifications.

Here is the link to that

How to Offer Client Proctor Delivery Exams

partners.comptia.org

and here for Pearson Vue

Test centers // Pearson VUE

When you become an authorized Pearson VUE test center, you directly contribute to your community by delivering the certification exams that drive people forward in their careers.

home.pearsonvue.com

 

[BrianFord]

It would be nice to sign up my new public high school as a CompTIA Testing Center so that we could test in-house for certifications besides the ITF+.

Would we be required to allow anyone to sign up and test at our school? I don't think we can do that as a public school.

If you are just looking to facilitate student testing you could set up one or two small rooms with a desk, chair, and computer with nothing on the walls ; and then use Pearson On Vue.
Setting up a test center with the plan to just provide exam services for your students while admirable isn't financially feasible. If you research the Pearson Vue requirements you need to have 2 trained staff members; a manager and a proctor. That training is not simple and they have to pass at least one exam. Then there is the outlay for the floor space and computers.
The local school district where I live (Flagler County Public Schools) does operate a Pearson Vue testing center. It's part of the district's technical college. It runs 5 days per week and is often full. The volume of tests helps to greatly defer the costs. See:

Testing - Flagler Technical College

Testing - Flagler Technical College

www.flaglertech.edu

 

[MarkGrohman]

Are there any direct costs from PearsonVUE or CompTIA for becoming a Testing Center?

BTW, I noticed the testing center assessments may not be delivered on laptops.

 

[Joshua McCorkle]

I currently manage a Pearson VUE testing center a couple of things to keep in mind

Pros:
1. the site owner does make income for each tester that takes an exam.
2. Site owner can decide what times/days they are open and can change them at anytime.
3. Pearson VUE can test more then just CompTIA so there is an income revenue possibility from other groups besides your own students.

Cons:
1. The test administrator is not allowed to possess a current certification for an exam they proctor and must wait 60 days before taking the exam themselves if they decide to.
2. They have strict requirements for the computers/network used ( example the test computers must be desktops no laptops)
3. Testing room must be dedicated to the one use, can’t use a multipurpose room.

there are other ups and downs but simply put it’s not a small ordeal to set it up but there are possibilities for rewards for running it.

 

[MarkGrohman]

I currently manage a Pearson VUE testing center a couple of things to keep in mind

Pros:
1. the site owner does make income for each tester that takes an exam.
2. Site owner can decide what times/days they are open and can change them at anytime.
3. Pearson VUE can test more then just CompTIA so there is an income revenue possibility from other groups besides your own students.

Cons:
1. The test administrator is not allowed to possess a current certification for an exam they proctor and must wait 60 days before taking the exam themselves if they decide to.
2. They have strict requirements for the computers/network used ( example the test computers must be desktops no laptops)
3. Testing room must be dedicated to the one use, can’t use a multipurpose room.

there are other ups and downs but simply put it’s not a small ordeal to set it up but there are possibilities for rewards for running it.

I have heard of the exam administration requirement, though I thought it was okay as long as you had earned the cert x months in the past versus not having earned it to the current revision. Where can I find this requirement? It is not in the test administer restrictions section at the link below.

https://comptiacdn.azureedge.net/webcontent/docs/default-source/proctor/comptia-test-administrator-guidelines-and-policies-v1-4.pdf?sfvrsn=9619fb33_2

 

[shaify]

Pearson support will be helpful in this regard

 

[Joshua McCorkle]

I have heard of the exam administration requirement, though I thought it was okay as long as you had earned the cert x months in the past versus not having earned it to the current revision. Where can I find this requirement? It is not in the test administer restrictions section at the link below.

https://comptiacdn.azureedge.net/webcontent/docs/default-source/proctor/comptia-test-administrator-guidelines-and-policies-v1-4.pdf?sfvrsn=9619fb33_2

I’ll see if I can find the specific policy for it but it was a restriction from Pearson VUE not CompTIA

 

[MBA]

Mark,
Thanks for asking about this and thanks to all the folks who responded and for the links provided. We have been looking into doing this at the university (private) where I work and clear information about all the policies and rules from both Pearson and CompTIA has been challenging to assemble. We were also under the impression that we would have to make the center open to the public and the staffing and location setup quickly became cost-prohibitive for the school, especially since we only have currently about a dozen students taking exams a year. But I wasn't aware about the workaround of using limited scheduling, although I agree that if you are going to invest in becoming a testing center, then you would want to go big and have enough appointments to make it worth it and administer exams from various vendors. I was also not aware of the client proctor delivery option. So, I will look into that.

I have been having the students simply set up their exams individually to take in-person or online at the end of the semester, then use the verification process through CompTIA to get the results. But, ideally, we would like to administer the exams in-house, especially as we plan to expand and grow our partnership with CompTIA.

V/r.

-Moez

 

[abiodun1991]

It would be nice to sign up my new public high school as a CompTIA Testing Center so that we could test in-house for certifications besides the ITF+.

Would we be required to allow anyone to sign up and test at our school? I don't think we can do that as a public school.

That can be done in public school but an experience person that can managed the test center needed to be employed so that managed the test center efficiently.