ATP Advocacy Policy Updated

Advocacy has long been a major part of the history of the Association of Test Publishers -- which is why reviewing ATP’s Advocacy policy became a priority for the ATP Board of Directors as part of the recent ATP Strategic Planning process.

“Even before the Association of Test Publishers came into existence in 1992 – its predecessor organization, the Association of Personnel Test Publishers (APTP) was established primarily as an advocacy organization dedicated to pursuing legal and legislative challenges to the testing industry,” noted ATP CEO William G. Harris. That dedication to being an industry watch-dog, he said, gave ATP a reputation as a “formidable and important advocate for testing issues” and the “Intelligent Voice for Testing.”

 A Subcommittee, headed by ATP Board member Henrik Skovdahl Hansen, ofDansk Psykologisk Forlag, recently reviewed and updated the Advocacy Policy of the Association in order to make the reporting of advocacy issues more accessible, as well as more global. That update was reviewed and approved by the Board of Directors. 

 “The Policy recognizes that the principle avenue by which advocacy issues come to the attention of ATP has, in the past, been through one of the Practice Divisions or Regional Organizations,” noted Hansen.  “The new policy outlines a process which formalizes and publicizes a secondary method for members to report longer term emerging issues and trends for possible ATP action.”

In order to learn about past legal or legislative actions, visitors to the ATP website at www.testpublishers.org can click on the link for ATP Advocacy History and Milestones. And in order to report a challenge or concern, or even just to place an inquiry, visitors can click on ATP Inquiries.

“All these methods of reporting are intended to cast a broader, global net for identifying  potential issues which are, or may become, important to ATP, its members, and other stakeholder groups,”  Hansen concluded. 

ATP Members can read the updated policy by logging into the Members Only area of the website and clicking on Legal/Legislative Updates.