Joint Committee on Testing Practices (JCTP) to Cease Operation

Janet Wall, ACA representative to the Joint Committee on Testing Practices (JCTP), reports to ACAeNews that a recent action taken by that group will result in dissolution of the committee effective December 31, 2007. Established in 1985 and comprised of seven national organizations, the JCTP provided a means by which professional organizations and test publishers could work together to improve the use of tests in assessment and appraisal. In addition to ACA, the JCTP members included the American Psychological Association (APA), the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME), American Educational Research Association (AERA), National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), American Speech- Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and the National Association of Test Directors (NATD).

The work of the JCTP was built around working groups that were responsible for the creation of such products and tools as theCode of Fair Testing Practices in Education, Test User Qualification: A Data-Based Approach to Promoting Good Test Use and the ABCs of School Testing. Additional details about the JCTP dissolution and how ACA and others may fill the void it leaves will be addressed in a forthcoming edition of Counseling Today.