The 2014 revision of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014) has added two additional concepts concerning fairness in testing that test developers and test users must consider before implementing a test. Identify and describe these concepts and discuss how they relate to fairness in testing.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• The first concept is called accessibility. Accessibility pertains to the opportunity tests takers have to demonstrate their standing on the construct(s) the test is designed to measure. This opportunity should not be obstructed by some characteristic of the test that is not related what the test is measuring.

• For instance, if person is visually impaired, his or her performance on a test of critical thinking might be obstructed because of difficulty in reading the test material, not because of a deficiency in the construct of critical thinking. If this occurs, inferences drawn from the test scores may not be appropriate (i.e., valid).

• If a test is poorly translated into a language different from that in which it was developed, the translation itself can make it difficult for a test taker to demonstrate the construct the test was actually designed to measure.

• The second concept that has been added to the 2014 Standards is called universal design. The idea behind universal design is that tests should be constructed from the outset in such a way that accessibility is maximized for all individuals who may take the test in the future.

• The goal in the design of the test should be that the only thing that will influence a person’s score is the degree to which he or she possesses the construct the test is supposed to measure. Any other factors that might influence test performance, such as race, ethnicity, age, gender, cultural background, or socioeconomic status are referred to as construct-irrelevant sources of variance and must be eliminated.

• Developers should strive to identify potential sources of construct irrelevant variance in all stages of test development. These would also include administration, scoring, and test interpretation. These considerations are important for both the fairness and validity of the test.