Highlighting Your Value: How Can Standardized Testing Programs More Effectively Demonstrate Their Importance, Relevance, and Purpose?

Standardized testing programs have been under attack for a number of years, well before the pandemic, from a variety of stakeholders arguing that their exams are:

• Unnecessarily stressful
• Invalid
• Unreliable
• Discriminatory, or
• All of the above

With the onset of COVID-19, which disrupted both educational and testing programs, such criticisms have become more strident than before, as critics and detractors cite the temporary interruption of testing as an opportunity to renew and amplify their calls to discontinue testing programs, whether for academic admissions or in some cases certification and licensure.

In this session, several prominent testing programs share their experiences of defending the purpose and the value of their programs and offer lessons and guidance on how other programs can do the same, whether during challenging circumstances or during more “normal” times.