Abstract
Efforts to develop standards for tests and testing practices have a long history. The purpose of this chapter is to identify these various efforts to develop test standards as well as to document the nature of the changes in these standards over the years. Of special interest in this chapter are the three major revisions of the APA’s Ethical Standards of Psychologists, and APA, AERA, and NCME’s Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests. In a final section of the chapter, several suggestions are offered about the issues which the two sets of standards, ethical and technical, do and do not treat.
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A high school newspaper carried a page one headline: “Meet the geniuses of the incoming class,” and listed all pupils of IQ 120 and up with numerical scores. Then under a heading: “These are not geniuses, but good enough” were listed all the rest, with IQ scores down to the 60s.
A new battery of tests for reading readiness was introduced in a school. Instead of the customary two or three, 12 beginners were this year described by the test as not ready for reading. They were placed in a special group and given no reading instruction. The principal insisted that if the parents or anyone else tried to teach them to read “Their little minds would crack under the strain.” In at least two cases parents did teach them to read with normal progress in the first semester, and later mental tests showed IQ’s above 120 (APA, 1953).
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Haney, W., Madaus, G. (1991). The Evolution of Ethical and Technical Standards for Testing. In: Hambleton, R.K., Zaal, J.N. (eds) Advances in Educational and Psychological Testing: Theory and Applications. Evaluation in Education and Human Services Series, vol 28. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2195-5_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2195-5_14
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