What criteria and requirements does the Secretary use for determining the suitability of tests?
34 C.F.R. § 462.13
in effectEffective: 2024-07-01In order for the Secretary to consider a test suitable for use in the NRS, the test or the test publisher, if applicable, must meet the following criteria and requirements:
(a) The test must measure the NRS educational functioning levels of members of the adult education population.
(b) The test must sample one or more of the major content domains of the NRS educational functioning levels of ABE, ASE or ESL with sufficient numbers of questions to adequately represent the domain or domains.
(c)(1) The test must meet all applicable and feasible standards for test construction and validity provided in the 1999 edition of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, prepared by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education incorporated by reference in this section. The Director of the Federal Register approves this incorporation by reference in accordance with 5 U.S.C. 552(a) and 1 CFR part 51. You may obtain a copy from the American Psychological Association, Inc., 750 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20002. You may inspect a copy at the Department of Education, room 11159, 550 12th Street, SW., Washington, DC 20202 or at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). For information on the availability of this material at NARA, call (202) 741-6030, or go to: http://www.archives.gov/federal_register/code_of_federal_regulations/ibr_locations.html.
(2) If requested by the Secretary, a test publisher must explain why it believes that certain standards in the 1999 edition of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing were not applicable or were not feasible to meet.
(d) The test must contain the publisher's guidelines for retesting, including time between test-taking, which are accompanied by appropriate justification.
(e) The test must—
(1) Have two or more secure, parallel, equated forms of the same test—either traditional paper and pencil or computer administered instruments—for which forms are constructed prior to administration to examinees; or
(2) Be an adaptive test that uses computerized algorithms for selecting and administering items in real time; however, for such an instrument, the size of the item pool and the method of item selection must ensure negligible overlap in items across pre- and post-testing. Scores associated with these alternate administrations must be equivalent in meaning.
(f) For a test that has been modified for individuals with disabilities, the test publisher must—
(1) Provide documentation that it followed the guidelines provided in the Testing Individuals With Disabilities section of the 1999 edition of the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing;
(2) Provide documentation of the appropriateness and feasibility of the modifications relevant to test performance; and
(3)(i) Recommend educational functioning levels based on the information obtained from adult education students who participated in the pilot or field test and who have the disability for which the test has been modified; and
(ii) Provide documentation of the adequacy of the procedures used to translate the performance of adult education students with the disability for whom the test has been modified to an estimate of the examinees' standing with respect to the NRS educational functioning levels.
Source: eCFRURL: https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2024-07-01/title-34.xmlFetched: 7/26/2026