CACAP Study Plan

 Certified Arabic Calligraphy Adjudication Program

The professional accreditation pathway for Arabic-calligraphy adjudicators — from applicant to licensed arbitrator.

5 modules · M01–M05
Three pillars: Knowledge · Experience · Examination
Accreditation threshold 80/100
Academic & Professional Framework

The Program's Academic & Professional Framework

The program converts the path of "artistic taste" into a "documented, auditable adjudication decision", through four progressive domains modeled on a recognized professional-licensing track.

Stage 1

Knowledge Domain


Establishing the judicial identity and mastering the evaluation rubric

  •  M01 — Foundations of arbitration & the arbitrator's role
  •  M02 — Applying the Rubric matrix (HCTFE)
  •  A knowledge test that calibrates consistency
Outcome: "Associate" status
Stage 2

Experience Domain


Supervised practice with statistical-agreement monitoring.

  •  Documented training adjudication sessions
  • Measuring κ / ICC agreement against the reference
  •  M03–M04 — Scoring & governance
Outcome: "Trainee" status
Stage 3

Capstone Assessment Domain

Demonstrating competence against an independent reference standard.

  •  M05 — Practicum (applied practice)
  •  Simulation + final report + defense
  •  Score ≥ 80/100 and the E-axis gate
Outcome: "Licensed (Mujaaz)" status
Stage 4

Professional Sovereignty Domain

Signing authority and systemic responsibility.

  • Active arbitrator licence (two-year validity)o
  •  Conflict-of-interest declaration each cycle
  •  Recalibration and continuous development
Outcome: Licensed arbitrator
Unified Pathway Matrix

Unified Pathway Matrix

  Linking every step of the applicant's journey to its study module, the competency gained, and the verification rule enforced by the CACAP digital system — so no gate can be skipped.

Step

Gate

Modules

Competency gained

System verification (CACAP System)

1

Registration & admission

—

Identity verification & active-script selection

Scripts restricted to approved specimens (M79)

2

Knowledge

M01–M02

Judicial foundations & applying the HCTFE matrix

Knowledge test → status updated to "Associate"

3

Supervised experience

Session log

Training adjudication with κ/ICC agreement vs. the reference

Session-count threshold + κ ≥ 0.80 and ICC(2,1) ≥ 0.75

4

Deepening

M03–M04

Scoring methodology, violations, ethics & governance

Enforcing the prerequisite sequence

5

Capstone examination

M05

Live simulation + final report + defense

Score ≥ 80/100, pass E, no critical violation → "Licensed"

6

Professional licence

Active licence

Signing authority & judicial independence

Active licence number issued + two-year validity

Decision rule: The minimum accreditation threshold is 80/100; scores of 78–79 undergo an independent second review; a proven critical violation mandates action and cannot be offset by raising the other axes.


What are κ and ICC? (Inter-rater agreement reliability)

In Step 3 we measure how consistent the trainee's reading is with the reference standard, using two standard statistical measures of "inter-rater reliability" (IRR): the first for categorical decisions, the second for numeric scores.

κ — Cohen's Kappa Coefficient 

  • Named after the statistician and psychologist Jacob Cohen (1923–1998), who introduced it in 1960; "kappa" is the Greek letter κ.
  • Measures agreement on categorical decisions (e.g., accredited / not accredited, passing or failing the E axis).
  • Corrects for the "chance agreement" expected at random, so superficial matching is not counted as true agreement.
  • Ranges from 0 (no agreement beyond chance) to 1 (perfect agreement); the CACAP threshold is ≥ 0.80.

ICC — Intraclass Correlation Coefficient

  • A descriptive name, not attributed to a person; "intraclass" means agreement within the group of arbitrators themselves.
  • Measures agreement on continuous numeric scores (the totals of the H · C · T · F axes out of 100).
  • Shows how close arbitrators are to the same value, not merely its ranking, revealing systematic drift up or down.
  • The ICC(2,1) form = a two-way random model for a single rater; the CACAP threshold is ≥ 0.75.

Why two measures? Because an adjudication decision has two faces: a categorical judgment (accredit or not) measured by κ, and a numeric score (how many out of 100) measured by ICC. Together they ensure the arbitrator agrees with the reference on both the "verdict" and the "number" before being granted independent status.


Unified Pathway Matrix

Study Modules (M01–M05)

  The five core modules, their outcomes and credits, per the program-structure map in the CACAP book.

Module ​

Code

Name & scope

Expected outcomes  

Credits

01

  ARB-101

Foundations of arbitration & the arbitrator's role  

Scope of responsibility, language of evidence, official-record requirements  

6.0  

02

  ARB-102

Applying the evaluation rubric (Rubric · HCTFE)  

Applying weights, calibrating consistency, turning an observation into a logged item  

8.0  

03

ARB-103  

Scoring methodology & violation classification  

Critical/major/minor, evidence-linked deductions, aggregation rules  

7.0  

04

  ARB-104

Ethics, conflict management & records control  

Disclosure, confidentiality, internal review, form-revision control  

8.0  

05

  ARB-105

Practicum (simulation + report)  

A complete dossier: Rubric + violation log + final report  

4.0  




 Total credits (indicative):

 33.0

To reconcile before accreditation: The current documents carry two credit totals (33.0 in the timeline vs. 37.0 in the five-track plan) and two thresholds (80/100 in the decision rule vs. 85% in the timeline). These must be unified in the book — the "single source of truth" — before the plan is officially published.


Unified Pathway Matrix

Study Modules (M01–M05)

Status progresses from applicant to licensed arbitrator, followed by the licence-tier gradation according to the score band at issuance.

1

Applicant

Arbitrator request + script selection

2

Associate

Pass M01–M02

3

Trainee

M03–M04 + experience hours

4

Licensed (Mujaaz)

Pass the Practicum (M05)

5

Licensed arbitrator

Active licence + CoI declaration

Professional Licence Tiers

80–89

Mujaaz · mujaaz

Standard licence — membership of competition juries (Track C).

90–94

Mujaaz Khass · mujaaz_khass

Chairing competition juries and serving as a Practicum examiner.

95+

Hattat Ustad · hattat_ustad

Chairing calibration sessions and granting licences to others.

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