Page A2 JUNE 2022 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A Jack E. Lechner, Jr. was appointed president and CEO of the Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science in January 2016. One day after his retirement ceremony from the Army, Colonel Jack E. Lechner, Jr. was summoned to the office of the Secretary of the Army and asked to revoke his retirement orders and accept an assignment to Arlington National Cemetery. Five days later, he reported as part of a new leadership team empowered to restore honor to Arlington National Cemetery following a serious scandal uncovered by the Department of the Army Inspector General in 2010. Lechner was a practicing funeral director in New Jersey for 10 years before enlisting in 1983 as an Infantryman. He is a Certified Funeral Service Practitioner (CFSP), life member of the Academy of Professional Funeral Service Practice, a member of the National Funeral Directors Association, Association of Death Education and Counseling, and the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. He is an instructor at ICCFA University, serves on the ICCFA Veterans Committee, and is a member of the Cremation Association of North America and the American Board of Funeral Service Practice. Lechner recently received a unanimous election to the Educational Foundation of the ICCFA. He earned licensure in New Jersey, Ohio, and Virginia as a funeral director and embalmer. He is also a Crematory Operator Permit holder in Ohio, nationally board certified, Certified in Thanatology by ADEC, and a trained Certified Celebrant. Lechner earned an Associate Degree from Mercer County Community College; Bachelor of Mortuary Science degree (Summa Cum Laude), from Cincinnati College of Mortuary Science (1990); Master of Science degree in Logistics Management, Florida Tech (1993); and a Master of Science degree in National Resource Strategy (Supply Chain Management Concentration), National Defense University, Washington, DC (2007). Published Monthly by: Nomis Publications, Inc. PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 1-800-321-7479 FAX 1-800-321-9040 www.nomispublications.com info@nomispublications.com Advertising: Display Ad rates sent upon request. Classified and Shipping Directory rates published in each issue. All advertising must be received by the 5th of the previous month. Due to the vast amount of sources, the publisher is not responsible for the content of any news articles or advertisements. Nor is the publisher responsible for any loss of revenue by failure to insert an advertisement. 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ISSN 1944-1126 Funeral Home & Cemetery News Online at www.nomispublications.com Online Directories US & International Funeral Homes • Supply Companies Cemeteries • Pet Memorialization Companies Trade Associations • Plus Much More... www.nomispublications.com Like @Nomis.Publications FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS NOTICE The FUNERAL HOME AND CEMETERY NEWS is now sent in two parts. Section A, which includes pages A1-A44 and Section B, which contains the Classified Advertising and consists of pages B1-B24. If you do not receive both sections please call 1-800-321-7479 or email info@nomispublications.com. a small non-funeral staff. It is NOT a legal regulating body authorized by state or federal law. The NBE questions are written by individual licensees who volunteer with honorable intentions. The psychometricians take those questions and revise them to achieve the consistent results. Dalene Paull, executive director of the Conference told me that if she accepted a question written for the NBE by me, I would not recognize it on the NBE. Last year the NBE cost $570 to take both the arts and science. If a student fails one or both, they must pay $285 to retest for each. According to the 2020 Annual Report from the Conference (last one available online) revenues were $1,745,483 with expenses of $1,282,730. A net asset increase (we don’t use the word profit in not-for-profit organization) of $462,753! The estimated increase in revenue from retakes was $416,385.00 (603 arts and 858 science at $285/test)! That is in addition to the $722,760 in revenue made from first time testers. This is an obnoxious amount of money for a non-profit to make. The point is that it is in the best interest of the Conference for students to fail and be required to pay to take the test again. I was first licensed in 1976, back then the NBE was an optional test. Most state boards produced their own licensing examinations or outsourced them locally. Board members were responsible for the material on the examination, board members administered and proctored the examinations, and board members were in the room to resolve issues with the examination. Today most states abdicate all that to the Conference and just sit back and wait for scores to be sent to them. Most state boards no longer write examinations, they depend on the test scores results provided to them by the Conference. In 2018 when I questioned our state board about the first-time pass rate for our State Laws Rules and Regulations Examination (LRR) (outsourced to the Conference) no one could answer my question. It took the personal intervention of the previous executive director of the state board two months to get the answer from the Conference. The answer was an abysmal 51.5% first time failure rate! In 2020 I sent an email request to the state board asking for the current firsttime pass rate for the state examination. My request was referred to the board member who chaired the education and testing committee. He returned my email with a phone call and told me that, “Dalene Paull [executive director of the Conference] told him that he did not have to give that information to me”. In August 2021, I sent a formal written request to the Ohio State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors under the Ohio Open Meetings Act requesting the first-time pass/ fail rates for the previous three years and the details of the fiduciary relationship between the state board and the Conference. After an inordinate delay of 65 days and being publicly disrespected at an open state board meeting by a member of the board – I was finally furnished two years of raw data on the state board Exam and the Laws, Rules, and Regulations Ohio State Exams that are prepared and administered by the Conference. (Up to that point, for the past 6 years I regularly attended the monthly meeting of the board. I no longer attend their meetings.) I conducted a statistical analysis of the redacted raw data provided by the state board and found that the first-time failure rate had actually risen. I was also able to show that if the Ohio state board directed the Conference to make 70% the passing score instead of 75% (like Nevada and Delaware have done) on the Ohio LRR, 41% more would have passed. I passed that information onto the board, but was never given a response. The Conference is an unregulated monopoly. There is no competition since most states have stopped writing their own examinations. The NBE from the Conference is mandated by most states, but there is no independent oversight. The Conference reports to its own board, which is composed of members of state boards from across the nation. For exLet ter to the Ed i tor: NBE Out of Control? Time to stop the National Board Exam (NBE). Why are so many candidates across the nation failing the NBE? First time pass rates nationally for the NBE are 68% for the Arts section and 57% for the science portion. Could it be the students? The students I’ve seen over the past 6 years are studying as hard as ever. I know how rigorous our mortuary science program which follows the American Board curriculum. I see how hard students work to excel. The students I see coming into our program are highly motivated to become licensed. They work hard to earn exceptional grades, are compassionate, caring, and smart individuals looking forward to a career of serving the public – we have a 93% graduation rate. So, no – I don’t think it is a problem with the students. Could it be the instructors and the schools? I see the dedication that every instructor puts into the education of our students and can testify that it is second to none. Our instructors pour everything they have into the educational process and care more for student success than anyone. They are the most supportive instructors, and they cover every detail of the American Board curriculum to prepare students for the NBE. So, no – I don’t think the problem is with the instructors or colleges. Could it be the American Board of Funeral Service Education (ABFSE)? The American Board maintains a curriculum update schedule that is slow and methodical. The curriculum changes are easily implemented and very often overdue. There is very little change in the curriculum from year to year. So, no – I don’t think the problem is with the American Board. Well, that only leaves one more area to consider – maybe it is the International Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards (the Conference) and the NBE itself! The NBE has become the greatest single barrier to entering funeral service in the United States. It is intended to be an entry level assessment exam. There are two sections to the NBE – Arts and Sciences. The Conference published national statistics for the year January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021. Only 68% passed the arts their first time and only 57% of candidates passed the science portion of the NBE their first time. Repeat test takers only have a 37% chance of passing the arts and a 32% chance of passing the science. Not passing the NBE the first time has far reached negative effects. First, the candidate will have to take another examination and pay for the examination again. I address the monetary effects of those retakes later. The psychological effects and the anxiety of having to retest is an incredible weight for the candidate, families, faculty/ staff, and employers. Second, the ABFSE requires all funeral/mortuary programs to maintain a firsttime pass rate for the NBE of 60% for arts and sciences to maintain their accreditation. This places a heavy burden on every funeral service instructor and administrator considering the Conference shares very little information with the programs (schools) and ABFSE; in fact, the Conference prides itself on its lack of transparency. The Conference uses psychometricians to construct the NBE. A psychometrician is a person (such as a clinical psychologist) who is skilled in the administration and interpretation of objective psychological tests or a psychologist who devises, constructs, and standardizes psychometric tests. Their purpose is to achieve consistent results. The consistently low scores indicate that the psychometrics employed are causing candidates to fail at unacceptable levels. The Conference is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) with Jack E. Lechner, Jr. PLEASE NOTE: The opinions expressed in the Funeral Home & Cemetery News articles, including Letters to the Editor are those of the author and do not reflect the opinions of Nomis Publications, Inc., Funeral Home & Cemetery News, its publisher or editor. NBE National Results for 2021, from the Conference website Arts Examination Tested Pass Fail Absent Total First Time 1269 867 68% 402 32% – – Repeater 603 227 37% 376 62% – – Total 1872 1094 58% 778 42% 61 1933 Science Examination Tested Pass Fail Absent Total First Time 1267 726 57% 541 43% – – Repeater 858 272 32% 586 68% – – Total 2125 998 47% 1127 53% 98 2223 Results from January 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole percent. ample, in our state we have a multi-term state board member who was not only the “Conference’s District 4 Director” having his travel expenses paid by the Conference, but he was also the secretary/treasurer of the Conference’s board of directors! He is now vicepresident of the Conference all while being an active member of the Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, that forces candidates for licensure to pay and pass the NBE. The Conference has infiltrated the ranks of our State Regulatory Boards. The entire construct of the Conference is replete with conflicts of interest. The Conference pays travel expenses and provides free registration at its annual conference to its own board members, mostly made up of state board officials. Also, the Conference has offered free attendance for one member from each state board to attend the annual conference. The Conference takes these steps to maintain its stronghold position as a monopoly. The Conference operates under a blanket of secrecy and shares almost nothing with ABFSE accredited schools. For example, there is a call out right now from the Conference asking for volunteers to be on the examination committee that excludes any educators from applying. “Committee members cannot work directly with or have any immediate family members enrolled in any ABFSE accredited program and must also be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement.” “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” quoted Edmund Burke. Now is the time for the profession to say no more to the Conference. We must become our own advocates; status quo is unacceptable. Here is a short list of what I believe we can do now to start to end this strangle hold on our future death care professionals. • Tell your state association that it’s time to end the monopolist dominance of the Conference. Tell them you want them to lobby the state board for an alternative to the NBE. • Go to the State Board meetings and be heard or write letters to the State Board asking for an alternative to the NBE. You have a voice! • Lobby the state board to lower the passing grade score of 75% to 70% for the state laws tests (like Delaware and Nevada have done) • Lobby state boards to have the passing score of the NBE lowered from 75% to 70%. • Encourage the state board to work with state associations and funeral/mortuary schools to produce an alternative test to the NBE (majority of state board members are association members). • Ask local legislators what they are doing to make your state more friendly to future funeral directors. • Lobby the board to create a rule forbidding a sitting member of a state board from serving on the Conference. It is a conflict of interest. The state board requires candidates for licensure to spend their money with the Conference to take the NBE – a state board member should not also be sitting on the board of directors that accepts money from candidates. We need to get the NBE out of our States! —Jack E. Lechner, Jr. Subscription: United States $30.00 - Canada/Mexico $60.00 Circulation: 21,000 per issue. Overseas rates available. Deadline for Press Releases: 5th of the Previous month. Monthly Features Association News. ......................................................................................... A25 Educational News.......................................................................................... A34 Death Notices. ............................................................................................... 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