What? The GRE is not a face valid measure of quantitative + verbal reasoning? These discussions are off the rails. Validity evidence for the GRE is not lacking. You can disagree with how universities use it, but make sure you are clear you disagree with the use of cognitive tests https://twitter.com/tage_rai/status/1174855321015242753

Perhaps a history lesson is needed. The college board began developing entrance exams so that "elite" colleges in the US could expand admission and access to hire education. Who do you think had exclusive access before standardized tests...?

ETS (who owns the GRE) is a non-profit research and assessment outfit, and was formed from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the College Board, and the American Council on Education. You may question the testing companies non-profit status

But they are officially an nonprofit and determining otherwise is out of my expertise. My expertise is psychometrics, and I do know that ETS employees more psychometricians than anywhere in the world (hundreds of PhDs work at ETS).

You can thank ETS for developing things like SEM and IRT -- for developing the very statistical methods that quantify test bias, to prevent it. The REASON WE KNOW TEST BIAS IS A THING IS BECAUSE OF R&D at places like ETS. Modern validity theory has been shaped by scholars there.

Can we improve standardized tests? Can we make education more accessible, more fair, and better for all in a place like the US where social mobility is low and segregation is high? Yes of course...

But think again if you think standardized tests are enemy number one. Standardized tests are sometimes all students have, who lack the nepotism and know how have to get into school. They aren't perfect, they aren't the whole picture, but damn it is we go back to "interviews"

I say this as someone w/ middling GRE scores, they didn't give me a leg up. I'm a HS dropout, I'm from Kentucky, my mom didn't finish HS, I grew up on food stamps. I didn't have access to a great education and the resources to nail standardized tests. But I still see their value.

excuse my various typos -- this might be my first typed-quickly in a fluster thread! I made it a few solid years on twitter before a rant like this!

I can't quit - I've been in the room to review the research done by testing companies to understand and prevent test bias. I've seen the team of psychometricians and educators working to understand the processes that limit test fairness.

I was inspired when a senior psychometrician, a black man, spoke to the importance of this research to understand one of the most at-risk groups in the US education system : black boys and his experience working with schools to use and interpret the assessments validly.