ABSTRACT
The second foundation dimension for assessment decision-making is the content focus of the assessment: what it is that is to be assessed. It is easy to say that a particular assessment process or test is assessing literacy, or numeracy, or emotional status, or social skills, but as evidence-based practitioners using assessments to make decisions about student lives we need to be somewhat deeper in our consideration of what is really being assessed. This means we need to consider validity – unless there is validity in assessment, it is worthless and can even be dangerous.
