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Ideas / Five rules for an honest credential
An idea from Four Weeks, Not Four Years

Five rules for an honest credential

Separate the one who teaches from the one who tests, pay the examiner the same whether you pass or fail, record everything and allow appeals, let anyone check the result, and make it update every time it runs.

In plain words

A second door is only worth building if it can't be bought or bent the way the first one was. So follow the money through the new system before you trust it. Anyone who sells the training has a reason to pass their own students. An examiner paid more for passing lets standards slide, and one paid more for failing robs candidates. A credential in a public registry is harder to fake than paper in a frame.

Evidence and sources

  • The international standard for bodies that certify people treats offering training and certification under one roof as a threat to impartiality. ISO/IEC 17024.
  • College accreditors are funded by the schools they judge. Congressional Research Service, R43159, on federal recognition of accreditors.

A tool you can use

Checklist. Does the tester sell the training? Is examiner pay the same for pass and fail? Is every exam recorded? Can a candidate appeal to a different examiner? Can anyone look up the result? Do the topics and examiner ratings update with real outcomes?

Questions this answers

  • How should a certification body avoid conflicts of interest?
  • How do you design a credential employers can trust?
  • Who credentials the credentialer?
  • How should exam graders be paid?

Where this falls short

Maxwell Rich Certification, the author's own version of this, is new and has no track record yet. Judge it by its design.

In the book

In Four Weeks, Not Four Years: Chapters 9, 10.

Read the full answers

How should a certification body avoid conflicts of interest?Who accredits colleges, and who pays them?How do you design a credential employers can trust?What is Maxwell Rich Certification?Who is Trenton Rich?

Related ideas

The five parts of good proofHuman judgment, held accountableA system that updates every time it runs
Cite this idea. Trenton Rich, "Five rules for an honest credential," in Four Weeks, Not Four Years (2026), maxwellrich.com/idea-five-design-rules.html. Free to quote, copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. The book itself is under normal copyright.