The admissions decisions of a university are one of its four "essential freedoms," and the courts, as a general rule, defer to universities' judgments regarding academic decisions. In many cases, the courts have said that admissions standards cannot be high-handed, arbitrary, or formulated in bad faith, and they must fall within constitutionally…

The context in which higher education admissions tests are used, both intended, validated uses and misuses, are examined. Possible legal problems of misuse are discussed in light of a recent court decision, Sharif v. New York State Education Department. Focus is on three tests: the Scholastic Assessment Test, Graduate Record Examinations, and the…

The nature of percentile ranks scores is explored using concrete heuristic examples. It is explained why arithmetic operations require measurement on equal-interval scales, and that percentile ranks are not measured on equal-interval scales and therefore may not be added or averaged. The consequences of inappropriately adding percentile ranks are…

A genuine concern for the condition of education in the United States has led to misuse of standardized tests to measure teacher quality. The tests have been used for purposes of admission, advancement, merit, graduation, and certification contrary to research findings and test developer guidelines. The current use of tests has resulted in…