Public:Notes on Test Validity

From http://research.collegeboard.org/services/aces/validity/handbook/test-validity

This analogy makes it clear that determining the reliability of a test is an important first step, but not the defining step, in determining the validity of a test.

There are many different methods that can be used to establish the validity of a test's use.

Crocker and Algina (1986) point to three major types of validity studies: content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity. Recently, consequential validity is increasingly discussed as a fourth major type of validity.

These four types of validity studies include, and sometimes employ, additional concepts of validity. For the content validity of a test, both a face validity and curricular validity study should be completed. To establish criterion-related validity, either a predictive validity or a concurrent validity study can be used. To establish construct validity, convergent validity and/or discriminant validity studies are used. Evidence from content and criterion-related validity studies can also be used to establish construct validity. Consequential validity requires an inquiry into the social consequences of the test use which are unrelated to the construct being tested, but which impact one or more groups.

Concise Page on Evidence

http://research.collegeboard.org/services/aces/validity/handbook/evidence