On the Compatibility of Organizational Behavior Management and BACB Certification

ABSTRACT

The number of practicing behavior analysts who hold Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) certification has substantially increased in the past decade. Some have mistakenly interpreted the BACB’s certification requirements as being specific to the autism and intellectual disabilities practice area. We present key BACB requirements, describe how they are practice-area neutral, and provide specific examples of their relevance to organizational behavior management.

KEYWORDS:

• BACB
• certification
• organizational behavior management

The history of professional credentialing in applied behavior analysis can be traced back to a panel session held at the Third Annual Conference on Behavior Analysis in Education in 1972. At the conference, one of the panelists, Don Thomas, stated:

As the field continues to grow, we can no longer dismiss lightly mundane issues such as standardized training programs and licensing. The days when it was possible to be on a first name basis with all of the behavior modifiers in the country no longer exist. No longer is it possible to list all of the behavior modifiers by listing the past students of Skinner, Bijou, Baer, Michael, Azrin, and the rest. No longer is it possible to list all of the behavior modifiers by references to the university from which they were graduated (Thomas, 1972, p. 34).

In the decades following this panel, there was an increasing need to identify practitioners with defined backgrounds and competence in behavior analysis. Several state and national certification efforts were explored as a means for protecting the public and the profession of applied behavior analysis from the harm that might be caused by individuals who lacked proper behavior-analytic training (Johnston, Carr, & Mellichamp, 2017). Lessons learned from these efforts culminated in the incorporation of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board® (BACB®) in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the primary mission of certifying behavior analysts worldwide.

The BACB has three levels of certification: Board Certified Behavior Analyst® (BCBA®), Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst® (BCaBA®), and Registered Behavior Technician^TM (RBT®). The BCBA is a graduate-level certification for independent practitioners who provide behavior-analytic services. Although it is not a separate certification, BCBAs who have completed doctoral training in behavior analysis may also apply for a doctoral designation (BCBA-D^TM). The BCaBA is an undergraduate-level certification for practitioners providing behavior-analytic services under the supervision of a BCBA-D or BCBA. Finally, the RBT is a high school-level certification for paraprofessionals who assist in delivering behavior-analytic services under the supervision of a BCBA-D, BCBA, or BCaBA.

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on BCBA certification¹ from this point forward. BCBAs have two types of requirements: requirements for obtaining certification (i.e., eligibility requirements) and requirements for maintaining certification. The most common route for obtaining BCBA certification is Option 1 (of three options); thus, we will focus on this eligibility route. As shown in Figure 1, BCBA applicants are required to meet the following general eligibility requirements: a masters or doctoral degree, graduate-level coursework in behavior analysis, and supervised fieldwork. After these requirements are satisfied, they must pass the BCBA examination to obtain their credential. Once certified, BCBAs are required to adhere to the BACB’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (BACB, 2014a) and earn 32 hours of continuing education in behavior analysis during each two-year certification cycle.

Figure 1. Overview of requirements to obtain and maintain BCBA certification (Option 1). Note: These are general requirements; we refer the reader to bacb.com for more specific information.

BCBA certification was first available in 1999. In the years that followed, the number of BCBA certificants grew steadily. However, in the last decade there has been near-exponential growth; the current number of BCBA certificants worldwide is 29,104.² Thomas’ (1972) assessment of the importance of credentialing is as relevant as ever. Because the growth of the BACB’s certification programs was temporally correlated with the increased demand for behavior-analytic autism treatment, there is a frequent misconception that the BACB’s certification programs are specific to autism and intellectual disabilities. They are not.

The BCBA credential is a graduate-level certification in behavior analysis and is not population or practice-area specific. In fact, aside from a single document describing practice guidelines for behavior-analytic treatment of autism for funders (BACB, 2014b), the disorder is not mentioned in any other BACB document or resource. The impression by some that the BACB’s credentials are autism specific is likely a result of the correlation between increased awareness of autism, increased demand for behavioral treatment of autism, and growth in the number of BACB certificants in the last two decades. Although it is true that approximately 70% of BCBAs work with individuals with autism, this is not a function of the BACB’s requirements. It is likely that a majority of BCBAs work in autism because of the increased availability of funding for the behavioral treatment of autism (Autism Speaks, 2018). Furthermore, the first applications of behavior analysis were with individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities (e.g., Fuller, 1949; Wolf, Risley, & Mees, 1964), so it is not surprising that the inaugural practice area now has the most robust infrastructure and evinces the most growth.

Before we describe the BACB’s requirements and how they can relate to the organizational behavior management (OBM) subspecialty area, we will briefly describe how the requirements are developed. All BACB requirements are developed according to National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) standards (Institute for Credentialing Excellence, 2018). NCCA is an independent body that accredits personnel certification programs and uses established and legally defensible practices from the credentialing and psychometric industries as the basis for accreditation. The process NCCA requires for new and revised requirements includes first convening a stratified workgroup of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)––behavior analysts who represent various subspecialty areas, geographic regions, training backgrounds, career stages, etc. The SMEs use a consensus process to provide recommendations about the requirements to the BACB’s Board of Directors. The Board of Directors, itself a body of SMEs elected by certificants, must approve any recommendations from the SME workgroup. BACB staff are only responsible for implementing the requirements. Thus, BACB requirements are developed by members of the profession, not BACB staff.

Relevance of BACB requirements to OBM

Relatively few OBM professionals hold BACB credentials. Although the reasons for this are unknown, there are at least a few likely factors. First, there is a limited demand for the credential from payers of OBM services. In other ABA practice areas, payers, such as insurance companies, require that a professional is certified or licensed as a way to identify those who are qualified to provide the services. Credentialing of professionals in other areas is also beneficial as a means to protect the public and, in particular, vulnerable populations from underqualified practitioners. These external pressures are less likely to exist in OBM because the modal payer is the organizational leader who hires the OBM professional. Organizations usually have the resources and ability to evaluate prospective consultants, rendering a professional credential less valuable. Second, although one function of credentialing is to ease the identification of qualified professionals, OBM professionals generally do not need a credential to differentiate themselves from others in the same market; they often do so by simply advertising expertise in “behavioral science.” However, with the increasing use of “behavioral” interventions, scientists, consultants, etc., in organizations, it might become more difficult to distinguish behavior-analytic expertise from other approaches. In those cases, a professional credential might add value. Finally, some OBM professionals may view the additional regulation that comes with credentialing as a burden. Taking an exam and managing continuing education units may be seen as tasks that consume valuable time and resources.

To the extent that OBM professionals might consider earning a BACB credential, the remainder of this manuscript will be devoted to describing how key BCBA requirements, all of which were developed by SMEs using the process described earlier, are compatible with OBM. We will focus on the task list, coursework requirements, fieldwork requirements, examination, and ethics code.

Task list

The BCBA/BCaBA Task List (5th ed.; BACB, 2017a; hereafter referred to as the “task list”) describes the knowledge and skills that an entry-level³ practicing behavior analyst should know. The content from the task list serves as the basis for the BCBA examination and coursework requirements. The fifth edition of the task list was published in January 2017 and will take effect in January 2022. It is comprised of two sections: Foundations and Applications. The Foundations section consists of four subsections and 37 tasks, which cover behavior-analytic principles and basic skills. The Applications section consists of five subsections and 58 tasks that focus on practice-oriented skills.

The Foundations section of the task list includes content on the philosophical underpinnings of behavior analysis (e.g., the goals of behavior analysis as a science, dimensions of applied behavior analysis); concepts and principles (e.g., respondent and operant conditioning, schedules of reinforcement, rule-governed and contingency shaped behavior, derived stimulus relations); measurement, data display, and interpretation (e.g., operational definitions, validity and reliability of measurement procedures, interpreting graphed data); and experimental design (e.g., independent and dependent variables, single-case experimental designs). The content of this section is focused on foundational principles in behavior analysis that are relevant across all subspecialty areas and, for that reason, the link to OBM is clear without further articulation.

The applicability of the task list to OBM is best demonstrated in the Applications section. This section begins with a subsection on ethics (E) that references the entirety of the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (BACB, 2014a), which we will discuss later. To illustrate the relevance of the task list to OBM, Table 1 includes the remainder of the subsections (F-I) with corresponding citations from the OBM literature. As shown in the table, we were able to identify relevant OBM literature citations for 44 of the 48 tasks. Although we were unable to identify relevant citations for 4 tasks, it is unlikely that all practice areas will have research and applications in every area of the task list. We would assume that, based on the population targeted, some task-list items might be more or less valuable in a practice area. Nevertheless, the sheer number of task-list items that can be directly linked to the OBM literature is a testament to the prominence of OBM as a subspecialty area in applied behavior analysis.

Table 1. BCBA/BCaBA Task List (5th ed.) Items from “Section 2: Applications” with Relevant OBM Citations.

Subsection	Task List Item #	Task Name	OBM Literature Citations
Behavior Assessment	F-1	Review records and available data (e.g., educational, medical, historical) at the outset of the case.	Sulzer-Azaroff and Fellner (1984)
	F-2	Determine the need for behavior-analytic services.	-
	F-3	Identify and prioritize socially significant behavior-change goals.	Cunningham and Geller (2012); Sulzer-Azaroff and Fellner (1984)
	F-4	Conduct assessments of relevant skill strengths and deficits.	Daniels and Bailey (2014); Gilbert (2007)
	F-5	Conduct preference assessments.	Wilder, Rost, and McMahon (2007); Wine, Reis, and Hantula (2014)
	F-6	Describe the common functions of problem behavior.	Austin, Carr, and Agnew (1999)
	F-7	Conduct a descriptive assessment of problem behavior.	Fienup, Luiselli, Joy, Smyth, and Stein (2013); Gilbert (2007)
	F-8	Conduct a functional analysis of problem behavior.	Therrien, Wilder, Rodriquez, and Wine (2005)
	F-9	Interpret functional assessment data.	Carr, Wilder, Majdalany, Mathisen, and Strain (2013); Doll, Livesey, McHaffie, and Ludwig (2007); Manuel, Sunseri, Olson, and Scolari (2007)
Behavior-Change Procedures	G-1	Use positive and negative reinforcement procedures to strengthen behavior.	Alavosius and Sulzer-Azaroff (1990); Dickinson and Gillette (1994); Hogan, Bell, and Olson (2009); Lee and Oah (2015)
	G-2	Use interventions based on motivating operations and discriminative stimuli.	Agnew (1997); Rafacz, Boyce, and Williams (2011)
	G-3	Establish and use conditioned reinforcers.	Fox et al. (1987); Loewy and Bailey (2007)
	G-4	Use stimulus and response prompts and fading (e.g., errorless, most-to-least, least-to-most, prompt delay, stimulus fading).	Karlsson and Chase (1996); Milligan and Hantula (2006)
	G-5	Use modeling and imitation training.	Catania, Almeida, Liu-Constant, and DiGennaro Reed (2009); Hine (2014)
	G-6	Use instructions and rules.	Parsons et al. (2012); Smith, Houmanfar, and Denny (2012); Squires and Wilder (2010)
	G-7	Use shaping.	Daniels and Bailey (2014)
	G-8	Use chaining.	Daniels and Bailey (2014)
	G-9	Use discrete-trial, free-operant, and naturalistic teaching arrangements.	Binder and Sweeney (2002); Roscoe and Fisher (2008)
	G-10	Teach simple and conditional discriminations.	Burgio, Whitman, and Reid (1983)
	G-11	Use Skinner’s analysis to teach verbal behavior.	Miller, Hirst, Kaplan, DiGennaro Reed, and Reed (2014)
	G-12	Use equivalence-based instruction.	-
	G-13	Use the high-probability instructional sequence.	-
	G-14	Use reinforcement procedures to weaken behavior (e.g., DRA, FCT, DRO, DRL, NCR).	Hagge, McGee, Matthews, and Aberle (2017)
	G-15	Use extinction.	Daniels and Bailey (2014)
	G-16	Use positive and negative punishment (e.g., time-out, response cost, overcorrection).	Marholin and Gray (1976); Rohn, Austin, and Lutrey (2003)
	G-17	Use token economies.	Camden, Price, and Ludwig (2011); Fox et al. (1987)
	G-18	Use group contingencies.	Brown and Redmon (1990); Sulzer-Azaroff, Loafman, Merante, and Hlavacek (1990)
	G-19	Use contingency contracting.	Christian (1984); Crowell and Anderson (1983)
	G-20	Use self-management strategies.	Olson and Austin (2008); Petscher and Bailey (2006); Richman, Riordan, Reiss, Pyles, and Bailey (1988)
	G-21	Use procedures to promote stimulus and response generalization.	Austin and Wilson (2002); Parsons et al. (2012)
	G-22	Use procedures to promote maintenance.	Conrad, Johnson, Morrison, and Ditzian (2016); Reid, Parsons, and Jensen (2017); Sigurdsson and Austin (2006)
Selecting and Implementing Interventions	H-1	State intervention goals in observable and measurable terms.	Frederiksen (1982); Sulzer-Azaroff and Fellner (1984)
	H-2	Identify potential interventions based on assessment results and the best available scientific evidence.	Pampino, Wilder, and Binder (2005); Wilder, Lipschultz, King, Driscoll, and Sigurdsson (2018)
	H-3	Recommend intervention goals and strategies based on such factors as client preferences, supporting environments, risks, constraints, and social validity.	Cunningham and Geller (2012); Sigurdsson and Austin (2006)
	H-4	When a target behavior is to be decreased, select an acceptable alternative behavior to be established or increased.	Gravina, Austin, Schoedtder, and Loewy (2008)
	H-5	Plan for possible unwanted effects when using reinforcement, extinction, and punishment procedures.	Abernathy (1996)
	H-6	Monitor client progress and treatment integrity.	Daniels and Bailey (2014); Durgin, Mahoney, Cox, Weetjens, and Poling (2014)
	H-7	Make data-based decisions about the effectiveness of the intervention and the need for treatment revision.	Daniels and Bailey (2014)
	H-8	Make data-based decisions about the need for ongoing services.	-
	H-9	Collaborate with others who support and/or provide services to clients.	Sigurdsson and Austin (2006)
Personnel Supervision and Management	I-1	State the reasons for using behavior-analytic supervision and the potential risks of ineffective supervision (e.g., poor client outcomes, poor supervisee performance).	Turner, Fischer, and Luiselli (2016)
	I-2	Establish clear performance expectations for the supervisor and supervisee.	Turner et al. (2016)
	I-3	Select supervision goals based on an assessment of the supervisee’s skills.	Jeffrey, Schulz, and Webb (2012)
	I-4	Train personnel to competently perform assessment and intervention procedures.	Lambert, Bloom, Kunnavatana, Collins, and Clay (2013); Parsons et al. (2012)
	I-5	Use performance monitoring, feedback, and reinforcement systems.	Sellers, LeBlanc, and Valentino (2016); Turner et al. (2016)
	I-6	Use a functional assessment approach (e.g., performance diagnostics) to identify variables affecting personnel performance.	See F-4, F-7
	I-7	Use function-based strategies to improve personnel performance.	Ditzian, Wilder, King, and Tanz (2015); Gilbert (2007)
	I-8	Evaluate the effects of supervision (e.g., on client outcomes, on supervisee repertoires).	Van Den Pol, Reid, and Fuqua (1983)

Coursework requirements

One of the primary requirements to obtain BCBA certification is the completion of academic training in behavior analysis. At a minimum, individuals are required to receive training in all of the areas of the task list, but it is expected that academic training will exceed these requirements. The BCBA/BCaBA Coursework Requirements (BACB, 2017b; hereafter referred to as “coursework requirements”), were announced in January 2017 and will take effect in January 2022 in conjunction with the task list. Individuals are required to complete 315 hours of graduate-level coursework (i.e., 7, 3-credit semester courses) in the following areas: (a) ethics and professionalism (45 hours); (b) philosophical underpinnings, concepts, and principles (90 hours); (c) measurement, data display and interpretation, and experimental design (45 hours); (d) behavior assessment (45 hours), (e) behavior-change procedures (60 hours); and (f) personnel supervision and management (30 hours).

As previously mentioned, the task list is both indirectly (e.g., concepts and principles) and directly (e.g., behavior assessment) relevant to OBM. Indeed, one could envision an entire course sequence taught from an OBM perspective. The foundational areas (i.e., philosophical underpinnings; concepts and principles; measurements, data display and interpretation; and experimental design) would likely still be taught in an area-neutral manner. However, the ethics and professionalism course could be taught through an OBM lens and the remaining applied behavior analysis courses could be primarily devoted to the OBM literature. In fact, a recent survey of 20 BCBA Verified Course Sequences⁴ with the highest examination pass rates found that instructors are already assigning articles from the OBM literature in their courses (Pastrana et al., in press). For example, “The long-term effects of a token economy on safety performance in open-pit mining” (Fox, Hopkins, & Anger, 1987) and “Evidence-based staff training for practitioners” (Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid, 2012) were the 9th and 10th most frequently assigned readings in applied behavior analysis, respectively.

Fieldwork requirements

In addition to their academic preparation, individuals pursuing BCBA certification need supervised experience applying behavior analysis in their chosen practice area(s). The BCBA fieldwork requirements (BACB, 2017c) were announced in October 2017 and will take effect in January 2022. Under these requirements, BCBA trainees are required to complete either 2,000 hours (“Supervised Fieldwork”) or 1,500 hours (“Concentrated Supervised Fieldwork”) of supervised fieldwork depending on how intensively they are supervised. We will now highlight the relevance of OBM in several aspects of the fieldwork requirements.

Fieldwork may be conducted with any persons (or groups of people) for whom behavior-analytic services are appropriate. Thus, employees and leaders (as individuals or groups) would meet this fieldwork requirement. Fieldwork must include activities that are related to the task list (see Table 1) and are consistent with the dimensions of applied behavior analysis (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). The activity requirements are purposefully broad to account for variations across practice areas. Table 2 provides sample OBM activities that correspond to each of the activity examples provided in the fieldwork requirements. If it is difficult to identify sufficient appropriate activities in one setting or under one supervisor’s expertise, fieldwork can occur across multiple organizations and supervisors.

Table 2. Sample OBM Activities That Correspond to the Activity Examples in the BACB Fieldwork Requirements.

Activity Examples in the BACB Fieldwork Requirements	Sample OBM Activities
Conducting assessments related to the need for behavioral intervention (e.g., stimulus preference assessment, functional assessment, staff performance assessment) or for evaluating behavioral interventions.	Analyze permanent products and existing data to identify trends in performance errors Interview or observe staff using the Performance Diagnostic Checklist to assess environmental variables that might be contributing to poor employee performance Conduct a PIC/NIC analysis to assess the contingencies supporting an employee’s performance Facilitate a meeting with key stakeholders to identify production goals and barriers to meeting the goals Pinpoint and measure behaviors that will result in productive meetings Calculate the potential for improving performance (PIP) to decide which employees should be the focus of intervention efforts Conduct a vantage analysis to identify similarities and discrepancies among and between employees at differing levels Conduct a performance systems analysis (PSA) to identify disconnects in individual, departmental, and organizational processes
Designing, implementing, and systematically monitoring skill-acquisition and behavior-reduction programs.	Design and implement a pay-for-performance system Write a task analysis of steps for onboarding new staff Develop data collection systems to track the number of safety observations conducted Develop a system for ongoing coaching by managers Collaborate with staff to develop an incentive system to reduce employee tardiness Develop environmental prompts to guide employees through a warehouse in an efficient and safe manner Facilitate a meeting with organizational leadership to develop strategic goals, objectives, and metrics
Writing behavior/treatment plans, progress summaries, clinical notes, transition summaries, and professional correspondence.	Write a performance improvement plan to address a performance deficit Present staff performance data to leadership to show the impact of an intervention Write a plan for improving customer satisfaction ratings Write an email to organizational leadership describing the OBM-project progress Develop and communicate a 1-, 3-, and 5-year strategic plan to organizational leaders
Overseeing the implementation of behavior-analytic programs by others.	Before a manager launches a new initiative, role play how it will be communicated to help the manager provide effective communication to staff Attend a coaching meeting between a manager and staff to evaluate whether feedback was effectively delivered Observe a training session delivered by an in-house trainer
Training others, designing behavioral systems, and performance management.	Facilitate a meeting to develop a system for ongoing quality assurance checks Using a process map, identify process improvements with key stakeholders Develop a train-the-trainer system Develop and conduct behavioral skills training to target improved customer service skills Develop a curriculum for an online onboarding training module
Communicating and collaborating effectively with caregivers and other professionals.	Facilitate a discussion with leaders to articulate goals and metrics for each department Problem solve performance issues with staff
Other activities normally performed by a behavior analyst that are directly related to behavior analysis such as attending planning meetings regarding the behavior-analytic program and researching the literature that is relevant to a current clients programming.	Research the literature for effective interventions for poor time management skills Participate in an implementation planning meeting

The supervision of fieldwork involves teaching and improving the trainee’s behavior-analytic, professional, and ethical repertoires and facilitating high-quality services for the trainee’s clients. As such, supervisors should use behavior-analytic approaches for improving trainee knowledge and skills (e.g., development of performance expectations, modeling of appropriate behavior, performance feedback). In addition, supervisors are required to observe trainees working with clients at least twice during each monthly supervision period. This requirement might include observing the trainee collaborating with staff to develop a training or observing the trainee conduct an assessment of employee performance. Given the importance of the supervision component of fieldwork, supervisors need to have identified competence in applied behavior analysis by being (a) a BCBA/BCBA-D in good standing, (b) a licensed or registered psychologist certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychology who was tested in applied behavior analysis, or (c) an approved instructor in a Verified Course Sequence. This last provision would seem to be particularly relevant for OBM faculty members whose students wish to pursue BCBA certification; OBM faculty members at a number of universities (e.g., University of Nevada, Reno; University of Florida; Queens College) might use this supervision qualification method. In addition, a number of BCBAs hold OBM faculty positions at universities (e.g., Florida Institute of Technology, University of Kansas, Western New England University) and work in OBM consulting firms (e.g., Quality Safety Edge, Aubrey Daniels International). Those who are interested in accruing hours toward certification could use resources, such as the OBM Network’s membership and training directories in conjunction with the BACB’s certificant registry, to identify qualified supervisors.

Examination

After an individual has satisfied all BCBA eligibility requirements (i.e., coursework, degree, fieldwork), they must pass a professionally developed examination as a final demonstration of competence. As mentioned earlier, the BCBA examination is based on the task list and, thus, is practice-area neutral. That said, examination questions might give some candidates the impression that training and fieldwork in autism and intellectual disabilities is a necessary prerequisite. Such an impression would be due to the fact that questions on examinations developed for entry into an applied profession must be structured around practice scenarios. Because the majority of practicing behavior analysts work in autism and intellectual disabilities, clinically relevant scenarios appear often on the examination. However, knowledge of the specific context or population reflected in an examination item’s scenario is not needed to correctly answer the question. Consider the following retired examination item.

A child diagnosed with autism engages in hand flapping almost continuously at home, day care, and school. An intervention is designed to reduce this problem behavior. Which type of experimental design would be the most efficient way to evaluate the intervention?

(a) reversal,

(b) multielement,

(c) changing criterion, or

(d) multiple baseline.

Individuals who have never experienced these clinical variables should still be able to correctly answer the question if they were proficient in task-list item D-5 (Using Single-Subject Experimental Designs).

Ethics code

One of the primary maintenance requirements for BCBA certification is adherence to the BACB’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (BACB, 2014a; hereafter referred to as “compliance code”). The compliance code was written to be broadly applicable to a range of practice areas in applied behavior analysis. In fact, the compliance code defines a client as “any recipient or beneficiary of the professional services provided by a behavior analyst” (p. 23). Virtually all of the compliance code is relevant to the work of OBM professionals. The following list includes OBM applied scenarios for which ethical guidance from the compliance code could be particularly beneficial.

• An OBM professional is asked to develop an intervention that will result in increased profits for the company, but could result in unsafe conditions for employees (2.02––responsibility to all parties).

• An organization asks their OBM professional to conduct personality tests for all employees when the practitioner has only been trained in behavior-analytic approaches to staff assessment (1.02––boundaries of competence).

• An OBM professional develops an intervention without client input that results in an intervention and targets for change that do not align with the organization’s culture and goals (4.02––involving clients, 4.05––describing program objectives).

• After the implementation of a successful intervention, an OBM professional leaves the organization without ensuring that there is a plan for maintenance (2.15––discontinuing services).

• A faculty member provides fieldwork supervision for OBM trainees without providing clear expectations of performance or ensuring that the trainees are receiving ongoing performance feedback (5.0––behavior analysts as supervisors).

Finally, the BACB has a disciplinary system through which the compliance code is enforced. This system includes a Disciplinary Review Committee and, if applicable, a Disciplinary Appeals Committee, both of which are staffed by volunteer behavior analysts who review alleged violations to determine if sanctions against the certificant’s credential are warranted (e.g., revocation, suspension). If sanctions are imposed, the certificant’s name and sanction are publicly posted on the BACB’s website as a notification to the public. Although this disciplinary mechanism is only available to BACB certificants, the compliance code may still be a useful source of guidance for OBM professionals who are not certified.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the BACB’s requirements for obtaining and maintaining certification have been purposely designed to be practice-area neutral and, as we have illustrated, are compatible with OBM. Thus, assuming all other requirements are met, there is no essential barrier between individuals being educated and trained in OBM and their pursuit of BACB certification. Indeed, a master’s program exclusively devoted to OBM could be developed in a way such that its graduates would be eligible for certification. To the extent that there is value in preparing OBM students for possible future certification––perhaps to better differentiate themselves from others who claim behavioral expertise in the same competitive market or to obtain certain faculty positions––we hope that this article illustrates the flexibility of BACB requirements toward such an outcome.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ BCBA certification serves as the basis for the remainder of the manuscript because it is a graduate-level, independent-practice credential and, thus, is consistent with the training level of many OBM practitioners.

² As of August 2018.

³ Eligibility requirements of core professional credentials are universally designed for individuals who are entering the profession.

⁴ A Verified Course Sequence is a series of university courses that has been determined to meet all of the coursework requirements for a specific BACB credential (e.g., BCBA).