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ABSTRACT: Approval of the Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education developed by the Joint Committee on Testing Practices
RESOLVED, That the American Speech-Language Hearing Association approves the document entitled Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education.
RESOLVED, That the document, Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education, be published in the next annual supplement to The ASHA Leader, be posted on the Web site, be made available upon request from the ASHA Action Center, and be included in the next revision of the ASHA Desk Reference.
RATIONALE: The Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education was originally developed by the Joint Committee on Testing Practices in 1988 and subsequently approved by the Legislative Council (LC) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). The document is intended to guide professionals in fulfilling their obligations to provide tests that are fair to all test takers regardless of age, disability, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, diverse linguistic background, or other personal characteristics that might affect test scores. The current Code that the LC is being asked to approve retains the objectives of the original Code but has been updated to reflect new national standards for testing practices adopted by the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association.
The Joint Committee on Testing Practices (JCTP) is an interagency group of professional associations committed to fair and equitable testing practices. In addition to ASHA, its membership includes the American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the American Educational Research Association, the National Association of Test Directors and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Sharon Goldsmith is the ASHA representative to the JCTP.
ASHA values its membership in JCTP as it has successfully provided ASHA with opportunities to monitor and negotiate issues of long standing concern to speech-language pathologists including test user qualification issues. The JCTP has provided leadership in managing initiatives that have attempted to limit the types of tests that speech-language pathologists would be legally permitted to administer and score.
The Code has undergone widespread peer review among the members of its constituent associations. In fact, ASHA members proportionately provided the greatest number of responses to the call for comment. All responses from ASHA members were uniformly positive in support of the revised document that the LC is now being asked to support.
The American Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the National Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of Test Directors, and the National Council on Measurement in Education have already approved the document.
ASHA’s support of this document would publicly re-confirm ASHA’s commitment to fair, equitable, and non-discriminatory testing practices.
The document that the LC is being asked to approve is attached.
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