National Center for Healthy Housing

NCHH evaluated more than 80 credentials and identified those that were directly relevant to healthy homes and were credible enough to be useful to someone seeking a healthy homes professional. It included only those credential programs that met the following criteria. If you have questions about these credentials or the selection process, contact Susan Aceti at saceti@nchh.org

1. Relevance to Healthy Homes
The knowledge, skills, and capacity required to qualify for the credential must evaluate or improve the conditions in housing that directly impact the health of the housing’s residents. These conditions should be related to one or more of the seven principles of healthy homes.

1. Keep It Dry
2. Keep It Clean
3. Keep It Pest-Free
4. Keep It Ventilated
5. Keep It Safe
6. Keep It Contaminant-Free
7. Keep It Maintained

The connection between the conditions in housing and health of the resident must be supported by peer reviewed science in recognized journals, statutes, regulations, or codes. If the credential addresses conditions that are not properly supported by science or law, then the credential should not be included in the listing. 

2. Impact on Healthy Homes
The credential must have a national impact with sufficient numbers of firms or individuals with the credential to reach all areas of the country. However, if a state requires the use of the credential to perform specific tasks in housing, then that requirement is sufficient. In general, a credential program must have more than 250 credentialed individuals or 50 credentialed firms to be considered.

3. Credible Program
The credential must be a credible program managed by a credible credentialing organization. At a minimum, programs must have written and effective methods to handle complaints from the public regarding performance or quality of credentialed contractors. Credibility may be demonstrated in one of the following methods:

1. The credentialing organization is administering the credential pursuant to ISO/IEC 17024:2003 for” Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons”
2. The credentialing organization is administering the credential pursuant to the National Commission for Certifying Organizations (NCCA) “Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs” revised in 2007.
3. The credentialing organization is a state or federal agency administering a regulatory program and the program sets standards for the performance of the credentialed contractor.
4. The credentialing organization demonstrates that it has a credible program by comparing its program to the 21 standards established by NCCA and have written and effective methods to handle complaints from the public regarding performance or quality of credentialed individuals or firms. See below for the 21 NCCH Standards. Note that “certification program” is means the “credential” for purposes of the Healthy Homes Contractor Listing.

NCCA’s 21 Standards for the Accreditation of Certification Programs

1. The purpose of the certification program is to conduct certification activities in a manner that upholds standards for competent practice in a profession, occupation, role, or skill.
2. The certification program must be structured and governed in ways that are appropriate for the profession, occupation, role, or skill, and that ensure autonomy in decision making over essential certification activities.
3. The certification board or governing committee of the certification program must include individuals from the certified population, as well as voting representation from at least one consumer or public member. For entities offering more than one certification program, a system must be in place through which all certified populations are represented, with voting rights, on the certification board or governing committee.
4. The certification program must have sufficient financial resources to conduct effective and thorough certification and recertification activities.
5. The certification program must have sufficient staff, consultants, and other human resources to conduct effective certification and recertification activities.
6. A certification program must establish, publish, apply, and periodically review key certification policies and procedures concerning existing and prospective certificants such as those for determining eligibility criteria; applying for certification; administering assessment instruments; establishing performance domains, appeals, confidentiality, certification statistics, and discipline; and complying with applicable laws.
7. The certification program must publish a description of the assessment instruments used to make certification decisions as well as the research methods used to ensure that the assessment instruments are valid.
8. The certification program must award certification only after the knowledge and/or skill of individual applicants has been evaluated and determined to be acceptable.
9. The certification program must maintain a list of and provide verification of certified individuals.
10. The certification program must analyze, define, and publish performance domains and tasks related to the purpose of the credential, and the knowledge and/or skill associated with the performance domains and tasks, and use them to develop specifications for the assessment instruments.
11. The certification program must employ assessment instruments that are derived from the job/practice analysis and that are consistent with generally accepted psychometric principles.
12. The certification program must set the cut score consistent with the purpose of the credential and the established standard of competence for the profession, occupation, role, or skill.
13. The certification program must document the psychometric procedures used to score, interpret, and report assessment results.
14. The certification program must ensure that reported scores are sufficiently reliable for the intended purposes of the assessment instruments.
15. The certification program must demonstrate that different forms of an assessment instrument assess equivalent content and that candidates are not disadvantaged for taking a form of an assessment instrument that varies in difficulty from another form.
16. The certification program must develop and adhere to appropriate, standardized, and secure procedures for the development and administration of the assessment instruments. The fact that such procedures are in force should be published.
17. The certification program must establish and document policies and procedures for retaining all information and data required to provide evidence of validity and reliability of the assessment instruments.
18. The certification program must establish and apply policies and procedures for secure retention of assessment results and scores of all candidates.
19. The certification program must require periodic recertification and establish, publish, apply, and periodically review policies and procedures for recertification.
20. The certification program must demonstrate that its recertification requirements measure or enhance the continued competence of certificants.
21. The certification program must demonstrate continued compliance to maintain accreditation.