International Test Commission

The founding of the ITC was due to the efforts of Jean Cardinet (Switzerland), who presented his concerns with the ethical use of psychological tests to the General Assembly of the Swiss Psychological Society in 1968. In 1971, the Swiss Professional Association of Applied Psychology published a set of regulations to promote the quality and prevent the abuse of tests. Cardinet initiated a project to create national test commissions in all countries using psychological tests. His idea was approved by the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) in 1971; and by 1974, at least 15 national test commissions existed.

In 1975, an advisory council of the emerging ITC met to draft a constitution and agree on the first initiatives, including a public survey of test attitudes. The ITC was officially "born" in 1976, during the Congress of the International Union of Psychological Sciences (IUPsyS), where its constitution was provisionally approved.

The draft constitution defined two membership categories: (a) full members, consisting of national test commissions recognized by the psychological association in their respective country, and (b) affiliate members, who were either international associations with an interest in testing, or national associations from countries not full members of the ITC. The membership structure was amended several times: first in 1998, when affiliate membership was opened to any organization interested in testing (including test publishers or universities, who had not been accepted previously), and then in 2000, when the individual membership category was created.

Today, the ITC membership covers most European countries and North America, as well as some countries in the Middle and Far East, South America and Africa.