Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing is produced through a long-standing collaboration of three associations: American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA) and the National Council for Measurement in Education (NCME).  First published in 1966, the Standards have been revised periodically.  The purpose of this webpage is to provide the testing community with general information about the revision of the 1999 edition of the Standards, which is now underway.

The collaboration of the three associations has been formalized in a Cooperative Agreement that creates a decision making structure and sets procedures for maintaining and revising the standards.   The agreement designates a publisher, currently AERA, to handle distribution and sale of the Standards; a Management Committee composed of one representative from each association to oversee all aspects of the Standards; and a Joint Committee to actually prepare the revision for approval of the associations.  From the outset, all income above costs of printing and distribution of the Standards are placed in a restricted account to provide for future revisions. 

One responsibility of the Management Committee is to determine when revisions of the Standards are called for and, if their recommendations for revision are accepted formally by the leadership of the three associations, to then establish the scope and nature of the revision and appoint a committee of experts (i.e., a Joint Committee) to undertake the revision.

Through consultation with association members, the Management Committee determined that the 1999 Standards should be revised.  Following approval from each of the associations, the Management Committee solicited commentary from the membership of the three associations and other interested parties about general and specific revisions to be accomplished in the revision, and then used this information to design the scope of work to be undertaken by the Joint Committee.  The appointment of association members to serve on the Joint Committee was completed in September, 2008. The Joint Committee held its first meeting in January, 2009.

In addition to providing information about the progress of the revision, this website be  used to solicit comments from the assessment community once a draft has been produced. 

Joint Committee Announced, September 2008

Members of the Joint Committee

Slides of Presentations about the Standards Revision Process

                        “Revising the Standards” – Camara, AERA/NCME 2007

                        “Testing Standards” – Gruber, Plake, Camara, ATP 2008

                        “Review of Test Standards Revisions” – Plake

Joint Committee Member Responsibilities