The Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education (AARC), formerly the Association for Assessment in Counseling (AAC), formerly the Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, (AMECD), formerly the Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, (AMEG), was chartered as the seventh Division of the American Counseling Association (ACA, formerly the American Association for Counseling and Development, formerly the American Personnel and Guidance Association) at its annual convention in April, 1965.  The founding President was Harold Seashore.

Bruce Thompson presented a review of the Division’s history in the January/February, 1992, issue of the Journal of Counseling and Development.  Since its inception in 1965, AARC as an organization and many of its individual members have assumed national leadership roles in promoting responsible use of measurement instruments, including their selection, administration, scoring, interpretation, and communication.  AARC has been represented on major groups engaged in the development of standards for measurement and evaluation, including the position statement on the Responsibilities of Users of Standardized Tests (RUST), the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation’s statement of standards for evaluation of educational programs, projects and materials, and the Joint Committee on Testing Practices (JCTP), AARC’s and American School Counselors Association’s Competencies in Assessment and Evaluation for School Counselors, and  ACA’s Standards For Qualifications of Test Users American Counseling Association

In 1974, AMEG published its first monograph, “The Forest, Trees, Branches, and Leaves, Revisited: Norm, Domain, Objective, and Criterion-Referenced Assessments for Educational Assessment and Evaluation,” by J. Richard Harsh.  In 1978, with NVGA, AMEG co-sponsored publication of a series of monographs on “How to Improve Career Development Programs” based on analyses of the results of the Career and Occupational Development Tests of the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In October, 1980, the Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development’s Statement on “Legislation Affecting Testing for Selection in Educational and Occupational Programs” was published.  In December, 1981, “PRO-TEST, A Response from the Association for Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development,” edited by Donald G. Zytowski, appeared in the fall issue of NEWSNOTES. Continuing this long history, in March, 1993, AARC published its booklet, “Multicultural Assessment Standards:  A Compilation for Counselors,” edited by Dale Prediger.  It was updated and augmented by Wendy Charkow-Bordeau in 2003.

In 2002 and 2003, AARC produced for sale, two monographs:  “Applying the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing:  What Counselor’s Need to Know,” written by a team of AARC members, and “A Parent’s Survival Skills for School Testing” written by Dr. Janet Wall.