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Testing for proficiency dates back to 2200 BC and the test adminsitered in China to determine fitness for the civil service. The system was an attempt to recruit men on the basis of merit, not of the family or political connection. The preparation required required memorizing the material not creative thinking.  By succeeding in the exam people were entitled more privileges. Similar systems were found in Korea.

Modern psychometrics is attributed to Sir Francis Galton and his obssession with individual differences and their distribution. Cattell his student furthered the development of the field.

Psychometric theory evolved from the tradition of intelligence, or “mental ability”, testing.  In 1904, Spearman invented factor analysis to aid in the measurement of intelligence. In Thurstone’s (1928) developed a law of comparative judgment for scaling of social stimuli- this was the psychophysics tradition

Robert Thurstone                            Charles Spearman

 Classical test theory provides the foundation of how to calculate test scores and correct for measurement error  to get reliable results. The theory  is based on partitioning a test taker's score into two components:  the "true score" that corresponds to the target of measurement (say, language skills) and a component called "error of measurement."

Harold O. Gulliksen                        Frederic M Lord 

Item Response Theory (IRT) goes beyond the classical test theory and offers new ways to design, analyze and score psychometric assessments of human abilities, attitudes and other variables.

The Modern era is much diversified

The validity theorists

Lee Cronbach                                                   Samuel Messick                                                Michael Kane

Pamela Moss                                                            Lyle Bachman

Fairness and test bias

Nancy Cole                                     Rebbeca Zwick                            Lorrie Shepard

 IRT

Ronald Hambleton

                                                                                   Robert Thissen

Standard Setting

Barbara Plake                                                                   Gregory Cizek

Equating

Robert Brennan                                                                      Michael J Kolen