ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes an Evidence-Centered Design (ECD) approach to validating inferences from assessments of historical thinking and elaborate on methods and issues using examples from previous research. The key difference between ECD and typical assessment design approaches is a requirement in ECD for clear and explicit description of how tasks and the evaluation and interpretation of task performance should be related to the target constructs. This requirement encourages and supports the design of tasks and assessments that are aligned with intended target inferences. The chapter emphasizes the importance of including historical thinking in assessments of history learning, describes challenges to including such complex thinking in large-scale assessments, and presents examples of designing and validating assessments of historical thinking. Although ECD is a flagship approach for developing assessments, successful implementation can be a challenge, and one should consider several cautions and caveats about ECD before jumping in and beginning this rigorous model-based approach to assessment design.
