Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing Need a Better Definition of “Test”

Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing determine their scope by defining a “test”. This definition is of practical consequence due to the significance of Standards for test evaluation, individual-level and policy decisions, and legal proceedings. I argue the current version lacks sufficient clarity. In light of the ongoing revision of the Standards, I consider the language of the current codex and its purpose, along with its predecessors, and propose a new definition of “test” that addresses the issues of the current definition – big and small – while being rooted in the contempor