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Test fairness has been a topic of central importance to test developers, test takers, and test score users for many decades. What constitutes fair assessment has evolved over time and has psychometric, societal, and legal connotations (Willingham & Cole, 1997). Recently, fairness has come to be thought of as a critical component of the valid interpretations of test scores.
As the use of standardized tests in the US increased in areas such as employment, counseling, licensing, and education, and as test takers became increasingly diverse, some stakeholders began questioning whether or not test results were fair and equitable for all subgroups of the test-taking population. Concern about the fairness of tests for subgroups in the United States initially focused on ethnic and racial groups, but was later expanded to consider gender and more recently has been expanded to include groups characterized by disabilities and diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
This paper explores changes in the interpretations of fairness in testing in the US over the past 15 years as illustrated by changes in the treatment of fairness in the APA/AERA/NCME Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.