ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the importance of planning for and conducting standardized administrations of tests to increase the validity of test score interpretations and uses. The chapter discusses how test administration threats to the validity of score interpretations can be avoided by focusing on key test administration standards promulgated by the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association [AERA], American Psychological Association [APA], & National Council on Measurement in Education [NCME],
1999). The chapter is divided into the following four parts:
1. Test Administration Threats to Validity 2. Test Administration Standards and Efforts that Enhance Standardization 3. Accumulating Validity Evidence and Auditing Test Administration Practices 4. Test Administration: Some Visions and Practical Considerations
Part 1 acknowledges the evolving conceptualizations of validity as a unitary concept. Two main threats to validity, construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant variance (CIV), are examined with reference to whether test administration practices (a) narrow the meaning of test scores or (b) systematically contribute extraneous information to test scores. The section focuses primarily on the construct irrelevancy of miscreant administration that systematically increases or decreases test scores for a group of test takers or an individual examinee.
