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CALEA Assessors Given “EARS”!Announcing the Electronic Assessment Reporting System
CALEA Program Manager Ted LeMay has developed a new computer software program for CALEA assessors called the Electronic Assessment Reporting System – EARS. It was designed to assist the assessment team in gathering information for the preparation of the on-site final report. The assessors are the “eyes and ears” of the Commission while on an on-site, thus the acronym, EARS. The idea for this system originated from the Standards Review and Interpretation Committee Focus Group Sub-Committee on Team Leader and Final Report Issues.The programming is provided to the assessors by compact disk, floppy disk, flash drives, or it can be downloaded from the CALEA Online website. The assessors use the program from a laptop or desktop computer during the on-site, in lieu of writing the on-site documentation by hand. It allows the team leader to use the “cut and paste” method of data transfer directly from assessor worksheets to the team final report, which greatly reduces the time required to complete the report. For the program to perform successfully, however, it requires that assessors provide the team leader with complete and accurate information regarding the assessment activities and findings.The forms are written in Microsoft Word 2000® and contain programmed hyperlinks between the various on-site forms, for ease of entry and transfer of data, avoiding duplicate entry, and re-typing of hand written information. The main document is the chapter assessor worksheet, which provides a list of all the standards in the chapter, and links to other documents used in the creation of the assessment final report. It identifies time sensitive standards, which require additional information relative to agency performance in those areas.Also from this worksheet are hyperlinks to the standard phrases table, file maintenance report, and compliance chart. Other hyperlinks take the team leader to the various sections of the final report, where, with a quick cut and paste, the information is transferred for editing and review.
Several on-site teams have tested the EARS program on assessments over the past two on-site rounds, and each team has reported it a success. For more information or questions, contact Ted LeMay at (800) 368-3757, extension 22 or tlemay@calea.org.
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