Testing and Assessment

Copies of the current Standards may be ordered from the
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The American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) have collaborated on the joint development of Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (hereafter referred to as the Standards) since 1966.  There have been four revisions to these joint standards since they were first issued as separate technical recommendations for achievement tests and psychological tests by AERA and NCME in 1955, and APA in 1954.  The most recent edition of the Standards was published in 1999 and is currently being revised.

The primary purpose of the Standards is to provide criteria for evaluating tests and testing practices. The Standards apply broadly to a wide range of standardized instruments and procedures that sample an individual’s behavior that can include tests, assessments, inventories, scales, etc.  The main exceptions in applying the Standards are for unstandardized questionnaires (e.g., unstructured behavioral checklists or observational forms), teacher-made tests and subjective decision processes (e.g., teacher evaluating classroom participation over the semester).  The Standards apply equally to standardized multiple-choice tests as they do to performance assessments (including tests comprised only of open-ended essays) and hands-on assessments or simulations.
 
In 2005, AERA, APA, and NCME convened a three-member Management Committee to oversee the revision of the Standards.  In 2008, the Management Committee appointed a Joint Committee consisting of a group of well-known content experts to revise the Standards.   The Joint Committee has met twice a year since 2009; and released a draft of the revised Standards for public comment in January 2011.  The group will be working to produce a final draft of the document throughout 2011 and 2012 with an expected delivery date of spring 2013.

Please contact Marianne Ernesto, Director Testing and Assessment, APA Science Directorate via email if you have questions or need additional information concerning the Standards revision process.