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National certification has been available for most school professionals, including teachers, school counselors, and school psychologists, for a number of years. It provides opportunities for candidates to demonstrate that they have met the highest standards in their profession. Because school social workers play an important role in schools, the School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) developed a national certification for school social workers as a means for school social workers to demonstrate excellence and recognize their contributions to youth, families, and schools. The purpose of this qualitative study was to determine the major reasons why school social workers pursue national certification. The initial group of candidates for certification consisted of thirty-six school social workers. Findings of this study indicated that the primary motivations for pursuing national certification included opportunities for achieving personal and professional growth, advancing the profession, demonstrating leadership, and expanding professional networks. This article suggests ways that school administrators, school social work researchers, and SSWAA can contribute to the sustainability of national certification for school social workers and support practitioners in pursuing national certification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the development of national certification for school social workers. The need for national certification emerged in the late 1990s, but many steps were required to establish this credential. These steps included developing a national practice model, documenting competencies outlined in this model, developing performance indicators that clearly describe what the competencies look like in practice, and creating a process for application. Although work began in 2003, national certification for school social workers did not launch until 2021. Now that national certification has become a reality, there is more work to be done. This article will describe those next steps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The space between the two epigraphs presented at the beginning of this article marks the difference between an insider and an outsider. Ms Barbieri, from "Voices from the Middle," made the first comments as an expression of what reflective practice -- observing and critiquing video tapes of hers and others' teaching -- could mean to her as an experienced teacher who had logged four years of work with the development of national board certification for early adolescence/English language arts (EA/ELA) teachers. She made the second set of comments after the Educational Testing Service (ETS) had taken over the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification assessment, and after she had participated in their 'scoring' of teachers' performances on three exercises in the assessment's teaching portfolio. This article offers the reader the opportunity to think about standards setting, certification assessments, and professional development. It also offers the reader to think about who benefits and about who is invited to the table. The author hopes to have convinced educators that they have to be active in these things in order to be insiders in standards and certification assessments. [This article was originally published in "English in Australia," 122, pp. 45--55, 1998.]

Abstract Background Countries are transitioning assets and functions from polio eradication to integrated immunization and surveillance activities. We assessed the extent of linkages between and perceptions of National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) and National Certification Committees (NCCs) for polio eradication to understand how linkages can be leveraged to improve efficiencies of these expert bodies. Methods During May 2017 to May 2018, we administered a 15-question survey to a NITAG chair or member and an NCC counterpart in all countries of the WHO Regions for Africa (AFR) and for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMR) that had both a NITAG and an NCC. Data were analysed using frequency distributions. Results Of countries with both a NITAG and an NCC (n = 44), the response rate was 92% (22/24) in AFR and 75% (15/20) in EMR. Some respondents reported being very familiar with the functions of the other technical bodies, 36% (8/22) for NITAG members and 38% (14/37) for NCC members. Over 85% (51/59) of respondents felt it was somewhat useful or very useful to strengthen ties between bodies. Nearly all respondents (98%, 58/59) felt that NCC expertise could inform measles and rubella elimination programmes. Conclusions We observed a broad consensus that human resource assets of NCCs may serve an important technical role to support national immunization policy-making. At this stage of the polio eradication initiative, countries should consider how to integrate the technical expertise of NCC members to reinforce NITAGs and maintain the polio essential functions, beginning in countries that have been polio-free for several years.

Currently, digital technologies are penetrating all spheres of public life and are rapidly changing the economic landscape of our country. The transport industry is creating actively technical and organizational solutions related to the creation of self-driving cars and their safe operation. The transition to the widespread introduction of unmanned vehicles is associated not only with new opportunities for personal mobility and commercial logistics, but also with the emergence of new risks of using artificial intelligence technologies in vehicle traffic control and traffic regulation systems. In this regard this study is devoted to the creation of a procedure and mechanism for state certification of unmanned vehicles. The relevance of the study is determined by the characteristics of innovative solutions in this problem area and the high social value of ensuring transport security, including the protection of information interactions within the framework of intelligent transport systems. In the course of the study, the authors have given a definition of certification of information security of vehicles. The article discusses domestic and foreign experience in building certification systems for complex technical systems, including the assessment of means and mechanisms to ensure their safe operation. An analysis of the content and process of certification of unmanned vehicles was carried out from the standpoint of verifying compliance with information security requirements. The object, subject and goals of certification of unmanned vehicles are formulated. The work defines the composition and specificity of the tasks solved in the course of certification. The characteristics of the methods and procedure for certification of unmanned vehicles are given. The structure, regulations and mechanism for certification of unmanned vehicles have been determined. Based on the results of the study, the authors substantiated recommendations for improving the institutional framework and developing organizational solutions for creating a national certification system for unmanned vehicles. It also provides a characteristic of promising research tasks in the development of methodological support for the design of test platforms. The authors proposed a set of measures for creating planning tools and conducting test tests to assess compliance with information security requirements for unmanned vehicles.