Professional certification is sometimes advocated as a means of assuring consumers that they are getting someone who is skilled and knowledgeable within their trade. Certification is also sometimes viewed as advantageous for enhancing professions’ prestige, promoting professionalism, improving academic programs, and helping to define a profession. Without the acceptance by an organization’s members, however, any efforts to implement a certification process are likely instead to be divisive and dysfunctional. This article presents the results of a survey carried out by a recent AEA Task Force on certification.
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