A Hierarchical Taxonomy of Test Validity for More Flexibility of Validation

Test validity lies at the core of educational and psychological testing, but there are controversies about what test validity is and how test validation should proceed. This paper develops a taxonomy to redefine test validity with hierarchical levels. On the basis of testing foundation, the hierarch...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inFrontiers in psychology Vol. 9; p. 972
Main Author Chen, Jinsong
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 15.06.2018
Subjects
construct domain
context specific
hierarchical taxonomy
Psychology
score use
test validity
construct domain
score use
hierarchical taxonomy
context specific
test validity
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Test validity lies at the core of educational and psychological testing, but there are controversies about what test validity is and how test validation should proceed. This paper develops a taxonomy to redefine test validity with hierarchical levels. On the basis of testing foundation, the hierarchy includes operational, measurable, realizable, and useful levels, which result in testing consequence. With the help of a context-specific construct, different levels of test validity, and different types of score use, the proposed taxonomy offers more flexibility for test validation. It can also shed light on the interpretations of important testing concepts and help streamline test development. Real-life examples are given to demonstrate the usefulness of the taxonomy across different settings.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
Reviewed by: Paul T. Barrett, Advanced Projects R&D Ltd., Australia; Riccardo Sartori, University of Verona, Italy
This article was submitted to Quantitative Psychology and Measurement, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology
Edited by: Yanyan Sheng, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, United States
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00972