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Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing is a document that articulates a set of professional standards for the development and use of educational and psychological tests. These guidelines are intended to inform all aspects of testing and to provide a basis for evaluating the quality of tests. The Standards covers a wide range of issues related to all aspects of the testing process, including foundational concepts such as validity and fairness, details of test development and implementation, and applications in specific areas such as employment credentialing and educational accountability.

The Standards is a joint publication of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education and has been approved or endorsed by each of these organizations. The primary audience for the Standards is professionals working in the fields of educational and psychological measurement. Given the expanding reach of testing, the Standards is also increasingly relevant to a wider audience encompassing policy makers, classroom teachers, and employers. This entry first discusses the history, purpose, and use of the Standards, then looks at the content and organization of the 2014 edition of the Standards.

History, Purpose, and Use of the Standards

History of the Standards

In 1954, the American Psychological Association first prepared and published a set of guidelines for testing entitled Technical Recommendations for Psychological Tests and Diagnostic Techniques; in 1955, the American Educational Research Association and the National Council on Measurement Used in Education (this organization is now National Council on Measurement in Education) first prepared and published their own testing guidelines entitled Technical Recommendations for Achievement Tests. In 1966, the three organizations first published a joint set of standards entitled the Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests and Manuals. Joint committees with members representing all three organizations have since revised this document four times, with publication of subsequent editions of the Standards in 1974, 1985, 1999, and 2014. The name Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing was first used in 1985.

As reflected in the titles, the earliest documents focused on technical aspects of test development and on the documentation of the test development process. With the third edition in 1974, the document took a more expansive view of test development, use, and reporting. The 1985 revision was the first to discuss validity as a unitary concept, and the 1999 revision reframed validity around the interpretation of test scores for particular uses. The 1999 revision also broadened the definition of “test” to include an expanded set of instruments and emphasized the decision-making process of both the design and use of tests. Key changes in the 2014 revision include an increased emphasis on fairness and accessibility as fundamental issues, introduction of a new chapter on the use of tests for educational accountability and policy, and expansion of the discussion of the impact of new technologies throughout.

Purpose of the Standards

The introduction to the 2014 Standards articulates multiple purposes for the document. These include (1) promoting sound testing practices, (2) providing criteria for the development and evaluation of tests and testing practices, and (3) providing guidelines for assessing the validity of interpretations of test scores for the intended test uses. The Standards provides a general framework for ensuring that all of the relevant issues for testing are addressed when tests are being created and used. The Standards does not advocate for particular test development procedures or psychometric methodologies; rather, it is meant to be widely applicable across different testing situations in which different specific methods are appropriate.

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