In March 2016, NCRA’s Board of Directors approved a number of changes to the General Requirements and Minimum Standards (GRMS) required for NCRA-approved court reporting programs. The changes were the result of several factors including: the need to raise the effectiveness of the educational instruction offered by NCRA-approved court reporting programs; NCRA’s priority to meet its vision of the future of court reporting education; and the findings of an industry-wide study released in 2014 that determined a future need of 5,500 professionals to fill court reporting and captioning job vacancies over the next few years.
NCRA conducted a survey that compared court reporting programs that reported a high rate of graduates to programs that reported lower graduate rates to identify the best practices of the higher performing programs. The best practices identified in the NCRA Instructional Best Practices Survey Summary offer advice to court reporting schools on how to support a student’s success.
Changes to the GRMS that reflect the best practices will take effect on Sept. 1, 2016, and all NCRA-approved programs must be in compliance with the new GRMS by Dec. 31, 2017.
As of Sept. 1, 2016, all new applications for NCRA approval must reflect a program’s compliance with the new GRMS.
If you have any questions, contact Cynthia Bruce Andrews, Director of Professional Development, at 703-584-9058 or candrews@ncra.org.
