Partnership Pushes for Licensure Standards

The Partnership for the Advancement of Licensure, or PAL, met on Dec. 5 to coordinate licensure advocacy activities among ASLA, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), and the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB). The partnership was founded in 2001 to push for landscape architecture testing and license standards in all 50 states. The group discussed several important issues at the December meeting. CLARB reported that the C/LARE process has improved and is expected to continue to improve. Due to the nature of the problems experienced during the first computer-administered test in August, CLARB offered candidates from the August session the opportunity to cancel their scores and retake the exam at a special testing session in November. Of the 117 people that retook the C/LARE in 75 testing centers, only one testing center was identified as problematic in the November special testing session. CLARB has also made the decision to switch to a different vendor, whose strengths are expected to address many of the concerns generated by the 2004 exam process. The partnership also discussed the need for more standardization of continuing education requirements. Furthermore, even state mandates that are different from each other can work better for the licensee if each state board is clear about what activities and subject matter will qualify as continuing education for its jurisdiction. The group discussed other post-practice act issues such as the need for landscape architects to stay involved with their legislators and watch for issues affecting landscape architects, even if the issue does not directly affect licensure itself. Other issues discussed at the meeting included the role of licensure in the academic community and for public practitioners and the trend of landscape architecture graduates pursuing other professional goals. The meeting is intended to give each of the three organizations an opportunity to provide feedback on emerging issues and pending projects in the common goal of achieving a high-quality practice act licensure in every state.