Some Theoretical Concerns about Applying Latent Trait Models in Educational Testing

If there is one crucial problem with the application of so-called psychoJogical test theories in education (or in any other context). it is that both test deveJopers and test usersjust don 't know what they are doing. Let me give you two examples: First. we have been testing intelligence for three quarters ofa century now, but there are virtually no test psychologists who can tell what intelligence is or what they are talking about when they use the word intelligence. Still, each of us has a more or less vague feeling that this or that achievement is a mark of intelligence. Although such a feeling does not provide us with any sound terminological basis for constructing a psychological theory ofintelligence or for its assessment. it does keep us going. Why not just compare subjects