Test [Education] Law and Legal Definition
According to 34 CFR 462.3 [Title 34 – Education; Subtitle B -- Regulations of the Offices of the Department of Education; Chapter IV -- Office of Vocational and Adult Education, Department of Education; Part 462 -- Measuring Educational Gain in the National Reporting System for Adult Education; Subpart A – General], the term test means “a standardized test, assessment, or instrument that has a formal protocol on how it is to be administered. These protocols include, for example, the use of parallel, equated forms, testing conditions, time allowed for the test, standardized scoring, and the amount of instructional time a student needs before post-testing. Violation of these protocols often invalidates the test scores. Tests are not limited to traditional paper and pencil (or computer-administered) instruments for which forms are constructed prior to administration to examinees. Tests may also include adaptive tests that use computerized algorithms for selecting and administering items in real time; however, for such instruments, the size of the item pool and the method of item selection must ensure negligible overlap in items across pre- and post-testing.”
