Elevating clinical licensing examinations to professional testing standards.

Clinical licensure examinations for graduates have increasingly come under criticism. Studies question whether licensing examinations can discriminate between prepared and unprepared candidates for independent practice. A study at Columbia showed no correlation between student performance on in-school clinical examinations and NERB examinations. The results question whether the NERB clinical examinations meet concurrent validity standards. A recent steep rise in the regional failure rate on the prosthodontics manikin examination questions the reliability of that examination. The authors urge immediate action to bring clinical licensing examinations into line with recent (1992) national guidelines for dental licensing agencies.