Keith Marcus congratulates Almond et al. on an interesting article bringing together two topics that are important to the field of testing. He states that some aspects of the exposition came across as not yet fully developed, as if the manuscript had been hurried to press. In this commentary, he attempts to expand aspects of the article, which he…

Paul E. Newton's article on the consensus definition of validity tackles a number of big issues and makes a number of strong claims. I agreed with much of what he said, and I disagreed with a number of his claims, but I found his article to be consistently interesting and thought provoking (whether I agreed or not). I will focus on three general…

This paper presents the authors' critique on "Clarifying the Consensus Definition of Validity" by Paul E. Newton (this issue). There are serious differences of opinion regarding the topic of validity. Newton is aware of these differences, as made clear by his choice of references and particularly his effort to respond to the various Borsboom…

We address 3 critiques raised by Grossman (2011) of self-report measures of mindfulness and the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale--Adolescent (MAAS-A) in particular. Grossman questioned whether self-report measures actually assess mindfulness, whether the construct of mindfulness can be understood apart…

According to Helms, "test fairness" is defined as "removal from test scores of systematic variance attributable to experiences of racial or cultural socialization." Some of Helms's reasoning is based on earlier work, which recommended that racial group or category variables be replaced entirely with individual-level constructs, to reflect racial…

In response to Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007), the author reconstructs the historical arguments for the more comprehensive unitary concept of validity and the principles of scientific inquiry underlying it. Her response is organized in terms of four questions: (a) How did validity in educational measurement come to be conceptualized as unitary, and…

Lissitz and Samuelsen (2007) propose a new framework for validity theory and terminology, emphasizing a shift in theory and practice toward issues of test content rather than constructs. The author of this article argues that several of Lissitz and Samuelsen's critiques of validity theory focus on previously considered, but subsequently discarded,…

Presents a unified concept of test validity that integrates both the scientific and ethical considerations of test interpretation and use. Argues that the appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness of score-based inferences are inseparable, and that this integration is based on construct validity. (FMW)

Six distinguishable aspects of construct validity are discussed as they apply to performance assessment, emphasizing content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external, and consequential aspects. Taken together, these aspects provide a way to address validity questions in score interpretation and use. (SLD)

Operating from multiple literature bases in cognitive psychology, mathematics education, and theoretical and applied psychometrics, Schilling, Hill and their colleagues provide a systemic approach to studying the validity of scores of mathematical knowledge for teaching. This system encompasses an array of task formats and methodologies. The…