Shima Ghobadi - Young Researchers and Elite Club, PhD Candidate, Shahreza Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza, Iran
Omid Tabatabaei - English Department, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran.

Fairness, an essential quality of a test, has been broadly defined as equitable treatment of all test takers during the testing process, absence of measurement bias, equitable access to the constructs being measured, and justifiable validity of test score interpretation for the intended purpose(s) (AREA, APA, & NCME, 2014)., developed by Xi (2010), to samples of standardized high-stakes test of EPT. Given that test fairness is closely related to the interpretations and uses of test scores as well as the claims made from those interpretations and uses, it is critical to obtain and weigh validity evidence to support or refute the score interpretations, their uses, and the potential socio-political consequences in order to evaluate fairness (Chalhoub- Deville, 2015; Haertel & Herman, 2005; McNamara & Roever, 2006). In an attempt to build a more comprehensive fairness argument that allows for systematic investigation of test fairness, Xi (2010) proposes a new approach to conceptualizing fairness within a validity framework. Her contribution to the understanding of fairness issues in language testing will be presented as part of the conclusion of this article. The results of this study have marked the degree of fairness enjoyed by each of these tests. The purpose of this paper is to provide principled bases for fairness and justice as applied to the institution of assessment: Fairness as relating to persons - how assessments ought to be fair to test takers, Justice as relating to institutions - how institutions ought to be just to test takers.

fairness, EPT test, score-based consequences, CLEAR