Educational Psychology / Unit 12 EDP 1108 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Which Validity Evidence?
The idea
To decide which validity evidence a situation calls for, ask what the scores will be used for. If the use is to show mastery of what was taught, content evidence matters: do the items match the curriculum in relevance and proportion? If the use is to measure an ability such as reasoning, construct evidence matters: does the score reflect that ability rather than reading speed or language? If the use is to select or predict, criterion-related evidence matters: do the scores correlate with a later outcome, which is predictive evidence, or a current one, which is concurrent evidence?
In practice
Worked example: a company gives applicants a test and later checks whether high scorers perform best on the job; that is predictive evidence. A teacher compares her unit test's items with her lesson plans; that is content evidence. A test designer checks whether English learners score low on a math test because of its wording; that is construct evidence.
Where people slip
Selection tests call for predictive evidence, and a test that merely looks relevant to takers has face appeal, not validity evidence. Fall tests that predict spring state test scores also supply predictive evidence.
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