Finding Fairness

Those of us who work in the testing field have assumed important responsibilities for developing and administering tests that are accurate and effective, with results that are valid and reliable. As stakeholders in testing, we strive for fairness in our testing programs and the services we provide. We make valiant efforts to ensure fairness through carefully identifying the correct test content and setting informed difficulty levels. We perform item functioning analysis to measure test question performance and evaluate the impact of sub-group variances. We seek to ensure validity across test forms, track reliability over time, and provide environments conducive to testing. In the name of fairness, we as testing stakeholders try to do the right thing.

It does not seem fair then, that so many examinees cheat, steal, and sell test questions, and even impersonate each other. It does not seem fair that some examinees try to thwart every safeguard we put in place to protect the validity of their test results. And it’s not fair that we need to invest so much money and so many resources in responding to the threat of cheating. It just doesn’t seem fair…..