ABSTRACT
Connections With Other Chapters
The familiar idea of a test score interpretation was introduced in chapter 1. Chapter 9 considered the basic tenets that (a) validity is sufficient for test interpretation and use and (b) validity involves only a restricted range of evidence and found them jointly inadequate. A theory of validity can embrace either of these tenets, but not both. Moreover, careful unpacking of a number of relevant arguments suggests that values are deeply embedded and fundamental to the validation process. Validation involves evaluating tests according to some normative standard, and any such scientific judgment involves implicit values. Validity and valuation are joined at the hip. Finally, the implications of these considerations for the role of consequences in test validity were explored. Chapter 11 considers open questions in test score interpretation and meaning.
This chapter and the next build on the foundation laid in the previous chapter by exploring the contribution that various forms of evidence can make toward supporting a conclusion regarding the meaning or interpretation of test scores. The issue of score meaning connects with the measurement section in that assumptions about the nature of measurement fit into the interpretation of test scores as outlined in this chapter. The issue also connects to the middle section of the book because in order to establish a causal assertion that a given construct causes a given set of test scores, one first needs to fix the reference of the terms used in the causal assertion. The present chapter develops a general theoretical framework. The next canvasses open questions related to the meaning of test scores. Chapter 11 will survey various types of evidence relevant to test validation research and explore how it bears on test score interpretations in light of the model and questions presented in this chapter.