By Lauren Charlip

Pilates-Pro.com was unable to attend the Pilates Method Alliance’s Teacher Training Summit in Dallas on November 7-8, and we’ve been eager for information about the event. This week the PMA released a report on the meeting that’s now available here. We also spoke to PMA Executive Director Elizabeth Anderson and summit attendees for a closer look at the outcome.

The summit, which drew nearly 80 teacher trainers and program administrators from a range of Pilates backgrounds, was organized to “try to build consensus about how to move forward as an industry in terms of professionalizing,” Anderson said. At issue, according to the PMA, is the use of the word “certification” and the need to differentiate between the completion of a comprehensive teacher-training program and an industry-wide third-party credential. Currently, the word “certification” is used to denote both.

After many hours of group discussion, all but a handful of attendees left the summit agreeing to cease usage of the word “certification” to signify completion of their training programs, and signed a public commitment to change the terminology they’re using by July 1, 2010. Several well-known Pilates brands signed on, including Balanced Body, BASI Pilates, Fletcher Pilates, Polestar Pilates Education, Power Pilates and The Pilates Center of Boulder. Read the full list here, on the PMA report.

In 2005, the PMA launched an industry-wide third-party comprehen­sive Pilates certification exam (which, to date, is the only industry-wide exam). As a third party, the PMA has no commercial rela­tionship to the exam candidate or the training provider. This independence distinguishes a third-party credentialed certification from a “diploma” or a “certificate” earned at the end of a teacher training program, much like passing a state bar exam is different than graduating from a law school. Many people believe that adopting a third-party credentialing process is important for the Pilates industry as it professionalizes, and believe that professionalization is important because of the level of growth Pilates has experienced in recent years.

The PMA suggests in the report that schools replace the word “certification” with either “diploma,” “assessment-based certificate” (ABC) or “graduate.” “We recommend people do it in the name of self-regulation, so that the Pilates industry can get in line with ways that other professions behave and operate that are much more established than us,” Anderson said.

The aforementioned group discussion at the summit took place after presentations from psychometrician James Henderson and massage school CEO Carole Ostendorf. Henderson—who led the development of accreditation standards for the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and is Executive Vice President of CASTLE Worldwide, Inc. (the PMA’s test administration company)—gave an in-depth presentation on the meaning and methods credentialing for various professions. Ostendorf shared practical perspectives on the matter from her experience in working toward professionalization of the massage industry.

By several accounts, a broad range of questions followed from the group. The PMA had hired a communications facilitator/mediator to help manage any debate that might have ensued. Instead, Anderson said, she thought that it “gave people confidence throughout the first day. About two-thirds, three-quarters of the way through it became apparent that wasn’t really needed.”

As the teacher training schools work out how they will refer to the conclusion of their programs, and work on changing the word “certification” on their web sites and in their promotional materials, Anderson said the PMA will issue a short statement that everyone in compliance with the initiative can post on their web sites. “We wanted everyone to learn more, debate, discuss and see if we all could get in line—and we did. Now it’s all about implementation,” she told us.

“In fitness, it’s an ongoing challenge when you take that word away, people are kind of going ‘huh?’” said Nora St. John, Balanced Body University Educational Program Director, who attended the summit. “Educating people about it is an ongoing task.” St. John added that there is concern that the third-party credential process doesn’t have a separate category for instructors who teach Pilates mat classes but have not done comprehensive training.

The summit report also addressed the PMA’s proposed Registry of Schools, which will replace the schools list currently featured on the site, which are paid advertisements. The group discussed criteria for inclusion on the registry. Summit participants voted that schools on the registry must have a minimum 450-hour comprehensive program and school directors must have a minimum of 10 years of Pilates teaching experience and have PMA-CPT™ (PMA Certified Pilates Teacher) status, among other requirements. They also compiled a list of Yes/No questions to appear in the registry, such as “Does the school offer a ‘bridge’ program?” and “Does the school have a job placement program?” For more on the Registry of Schools, view the second-to-last page of the report, here.

In addition, the PMA determined at the summit that it would remove online teacher training workshops from its web site. Many of the summit attendees felt they were in competition with the workshops. The PMA also promoted new materials that will be available to member of its Fostering Future Professionals program, a $35 two-year membership for students in teacher-training programs.

Lauren Charlip is Managing Editor of Pilates-Pro.com.
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