DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Licensure Testing: Purposes, Procedures, and Practices, edited by James C. Impara (Lincoln, Nebraska, United States: Buros Institute of Mental Measurements, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1995).

Copyright © 1995, Buros Institute of Mental Measurements. Digital Edition copyright © 2012, Buros Center for Testing.

This book may be downloaded, saved, and printed by an individual for their own use. No part of this book may be re-published, re-posted, or redistributed without written permission of the holder of copyright.

There are few books devoted solely to the topic of licensure testing, but each state and the federal government is involved in this form of testing. Licensure testing is far too important to be undertaken casually, because it is big business and it has implications and consequences for thousands of people annually. Every author in this book is involved in some way with licensure testing. Some authors work for professional organizations that are responsible for development of licensure tests. Other authors work for companies that contract with licensure boards to develop licensure tests. The rest serve as consultants to one or more licensure boards to assist in the development and maintenance of licensure testing programs. The intent of this book is to provide licensure board members with practical information that will help them to understand and carry out their measurement related responsibilities. Many licensure boards employ consultants to assist in developing or selecting measures to use in making the licensure decision. They employ such consultants for a number of reasons (for example, because they do not have large numbers of employees who are trained in test development, because the occupations they are charged with regulating may have only small numbers of applicants, or because they have little funding and must issue licenses based on results of tests developed by national professional organizations). The reason for employing outside consultants is not really material, the board is the legally responsible agent and the board must make decisions about the test. This book is intended to help board members make such decisions. This book is also intended to aid measurement consultants by providing them with specific information written in the context of licensure testing. This book provides some technical guidance useful in the development of licensure tests. Most chapters contain some technical content (especially the chapters in Part Two); however, there was an attempt to make most of the content readable by board members while providing measurement consultants with guidelines and references that will assist them in their consulting role.