The overarching theme is centred around ensuring fairness, validity, and reliability (Kane 2013, Messick, 1989) in high-stakes educational assessments, with a strong emphasis on how different factors (such as item format, gender, language background, socio-economic status, scoring methods, and standard-setting practices) can introduce bias or inequity.

High-stakes test are considered “assessments that have serious consequences” for participants (Stobart & Eggen, 2012, p.1) . They typically involve national assessments or external examinations used for admissions to a higher level of education or that otherwise have a significant impact on students’ educational careers and other life choices. With this in mind, fairness and validity are corner concepts of any modern high-stakes testing.

Four general aspects of fairness are the equivalent opportunity of test-takers in the testing process, the lack of measurement bias, the access to the construct(s) as measured, and the validity of individual test score interpretations for the intended uses (AERA et al., 2014). This symposium will present distinct aspects of high-stakes testing that draw from real life applications of tests and are oriented at solving problems that are interesting both from the point of scientific interest and practical use.

The first thematic area deals with ideas of equity and access, methodological breadth for fairness, and policy stakes. The symposium interrogates how response formats, scoring policies, and item content interact with gender, language background, and SES to produce measurable DIF and differential outcomes in national and admissions assessments. Using complementary psychometric approaches across distinct European contexts (Sweden and Flanders), the session demonstrates how fairness can be strengthened—or undermined—by design and policy.

The second thematic area deals with ideas of validity as a system, decision consequences, and actionability and governance. The session foregrounds validity as an ecosystem, linking interpretive arguments, norm‑referenced data use, and operational safeguards, to improve both the defensibility and usability of examinations internationally.

AERA, APA, & NCME. (2014). Standards for educational and psychological testing. American Educational Research Association. Kane, M. T. (2013). Validating the interpretations and uses of test scores. Journal of Educational Measurement, 50(1), 1–73. Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R. L. Linn (Ed.), Educational measurement (3rd ed., pp. 13–103). Macmillan. Stobart, G. and Eggen, T. (2012). High Stakes testing - value, fairness and consequences. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice. Vol.19, pp.1-6