ABSTRACT
Connections With Other Chapters
In chapter 1, we canvassed various perspectives on test validity. In subsequent chapters, we presented various approaches to thinking about and empirically modeling test scores and item responses. Material in those chapters illustrated how specific validation strategies can depend on the assumptions about measurement and the assumptions about causation that underlie a given test interpretation. The present chapter explores literature bearing on the breadth of test validity theory and specifically the role of values in test validity theory. Chapter 10 then turns specifically to the topic of test score interpretation.
It does not take professional training to produce interpretations of test scores. Human beings have a remarkable capacity for spotting patterns and assigning meaning even where they do not exist. Effective testing, however, requires justification of interpretations of tests scores. Untutored interpretations will not consistently meet this standard. As such, justifications of interpretations of tests scores play a central role in test validity and test validation.