It covers issues such as rate of speed for speaker, norm-referenced or criterion-referenced test, cutoff level for passing, percent of persons passing the New Jersey screening test for English and Spanish court interpreters, and length of longest utterance in the consecutive portion of the test. It compares the State screening test with the certification examination for court interpreters administered by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts (AOC). In addition, interacting forces in the test development process are discussed including goals of the screening test; relevant policy, profession's standards; knowledge, skills, and abilities; resources, psychometric standards; duty to administer justice; and the real world of the trial courts. Principles of test development are examined, and a transcript of a real court proceeding is presented to illustrate the testing process. 7 tables and 13 notes