ABSTRACT
As tests and testing have taken on an increasingly important role in education, the evaluation of those tests also becomes ever more critical. Yet, we must often distinguish that we are not really evaluating the worth of a particular test per se, but rather the value of its use. In other words, it is the evaluation of the application of tests in a particular context at a particular time with a particular population that is needed. A test that might be used quite successfully in one context is not necessarily appropriate in others. This point is true of virtually all kinds of tests. In secretarial work, for example, typing tests were once common in the hiring process and in training programs. Today, office workers instead are often certified for their ability to use various specific software packages. Similarly, when curricula change, tests of student achievement invariably must as well. That testing as a process and the instruments used in testing were seen as worthy of assessment themselves emerged largely in the U.S.
