Test validity and the ethics of assessment.

TLDR

Test adequacy is judged by psychometric evidence of construct validity, while test appropriateness is judged by potential social consequences, providing evidential and consequential bases for interpretation and use. This article stresses the importance of construct validity for test use and the need to consider the value implications of test interpretations. By integrating evidential and consequential bases, the study shows that test validity should encompass both ethical considerations and psychometric evidence.

Abstract

Questions of the adequacy of a test as a measure of the characteristic it is interpreted to assess are answerable on scientific grounds by appraising psychometric evidence, especially construct validity. Questions of the appropriateness of test use in proposed applications are answerable on qthical grounds by appraising potential social consequences of the testing. The first set of answers provides an evidential basis for test interpretation, and the second set provides a consequential basis for test use. In addition, this article stresses (a) the importance of construct validity for test use because it provides a rational foundation for predictiveness and relevance, and (b) the importance of taking into account the value implications of test interpretations per se. By thus considering both the evidential and consequential bases of both test interpretation and test use, the roles of evidence and social values in the overall validation process are illuminated, and test validity comes to be based on ethical as well as