Seeking Redemption for Our Psychometric Sins

Many American children are currently receiving a reduced quality education because of the increasingly widespread misuse of educational tests. Employing a religious metaphor, the author argues that members of the educational measurement community are culpable, at least in part, for this calamity. During recent decades, our nation's assessment personnel have failed to speak out vigorously against the increasingly prevalent improper use of traditionally constructed achievement tests to appraise school quality. This absence of action, it is claimed, constitutes a nontrivial sin of omission. To secure absolution for that sin, it is contended that measurement specialists must promote widespread assessment literacy.