ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to summarize key aspects of the comprehensive framework and describes the benefits of renewed alacrity regarding validation of score meaning and justification of score use and focuses on additional research and development work needed to further advance validity theory and practice. A comprehensive framework for defensible testing provides a much needed solution to what have been intractable problems in modern validity theory. The National Council on Measurement in Education policy recommends formulation and documentation of formal statements of theories of action whenever “program sponsors, designers, or users intend a testing program to effect change”. A truly ambitious conceptualization would address the topic of reliability; it would fully and formally assimilate reliability into a comprehensive framework for defensible testing. The most likely pathway for incorporating reliability would involve subsuming it under the umbrella of validity. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
