It is often not understood that these standards, which are of critical importance to those who author and sell psychological and educational tests (i.e, publishers), also include important user standards…that is, assessment professionals who select, evaluate, administer and interpret such tests have certain standards they should ascribe to.
As stated in the Joint Test Standards, “validation is the joint responsibility of the test developer and the test user. The test developer is responsible for furnishing relevant evidence and a rationale in support of any test score interpretations for specified uses intended by the developer. The test user is ultimately responsible for evaluating the evidence in the particular setting in which the test is to be used. When a test user proposes an interpretation or use of test scores that differs from those supported by the test developer, the responsibility for providing validity evidence in support of that interpretation for the specified use is the responsibility of the user. It should be noted that important contributions to the validity evidence may be made as other researchers report findings of investigations that are related to the meaning of test scores” (p.13; emphasis added).
The publication of a technical manual is the start..but not the end. The publication of a tests technical manual provides the starting point or foundation (as per the Joint Test Standards) for an ongoing “never ending story” of additional validity evidence that accumulates post-publication through additional research studies. A thorough and well written technical manual is a “must” at publication of a new test, adhering as close as reasonably possible to the relevant Joint Test Standards.
“It is commonly observed that the validation process never ends, as there is always additional information that can be gathered to more fully understand a test and the inferences that an be drawn from it” (p .21).
If the reader has access to the latest edition of Flanagan and McDonough’s Contemporary Intellectual Assessment (2018) book, the Montgomery, Torres, and Eiseman chapter on “Using the Joint Test Standards to Evaluate the Validity Evidence for Intelligence Tests”) is highly recommended as a concise summary of the ins-and-outs of the Joint Test Standards.
Psychological and educational assessment tools provide information that often result in crucial, and at times, life altering decisions for individuals, especial school age students. All parties (authors, publisher, users) must take these Joint Test Standards seriously.
