This chapter recognized six major decision-making contexts, referred to as User Paths, in which educational measurements typically play a part. These are classroom assessment (User Path 1); assessment for program evaluation, planning, or policy-making (User Path 2); assessment for screening or diagnosis of exceptionalities (User Path 3); assessment for guidance and counseling (User Path 4); assessment for admissions, placement, recognitions and awards (User Path 5); and finally, assessment in educational research (User Path 6). In practice, these user contexts are not mutually exclusive; assessment users often cross the context boundaries. The purposes, or specific usages of data from assessments in the different contexts, however, differ.

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