ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the fundamental aspects of validity and approaches to test validation, discusses issues involved in validating educational tests for accountability purposes, and critiques the current status of test validation for accountability purposes. In addition, it provides a discussion of future directions for developing and validating educational assessments for accountability purposes. Essentially, the standards mandate that accountability indices based on aggregates of students’ test scores “should be subjected to same validity, reliability, and fairness investigations that are expected for the test scores that underlie the index”. Validity evidence based on internal structure refers to statistical analysis of item and sub-score data to investigate the primary and secondary (if any) dimensions measured by a test. Concerns about construct shift necessitate the evaluation of “vertical equating” whenever accountability models assume test scores are on a common scale across grades. Vertical equating is a process that involves placing scores from tests in different grades, and in same subject area, on same scale.
