Research on Standards for Professional Licensure and Certification Examinations

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to outline an agenda for research on standards for professional licensure and certification examinations. To avoid confusion, scores are defined as content-based decisions about the correctness of responses, and standards refer to the educational/social decisions about how many questions need to be answered correctly to pass. Standards are the focus of this article. The two major types of standards, relative and absolute, are described and the major standardsetting methods for each are presented. Some of the published results in four different areas are reviewed: (a) basis of the judgments, (b) efficiency of the process, (c) group effects, and (d) content and expertise effects. Topics forfuture research in allfour areas are identified.