Author: testingapersonalhistory

The Test-Taker’s Anxiety And The Limits Of Predictive Validity

Over seven decades, my compulsion to read has benefited me enormously. The most recent example is that in taking on a book on Russian books and the people who read them by Elif Batuman entitled The Possessed. The book has nothing to do with but I’m trying to do and doesn’t fit my usual interests, […]

The Way To Bet or Predictive Validity Is Imperfect Too!

Yesterday’s post continued the theme of the lack of understanding of validity in both the design of tests at all levels and interpretation of their scores. In service of that argument, I quoted from a chapter by Emily Shaw in the book Measuring Success edited by Jack Buckley, Lynn Letukas, and Ben Wildavsky: “Decades of […]

Mailbox Monday: Our Faithful Correspondents Communicate

Double digits now! This is the tenth post of the thirty-one promised January Jolts for Testing: A Personal History. For new readers — and if LinkedIn stats are valid — we have many of those — here is an explanation for why this blog exists: Having been thrust accidentally into the world of testing 20 […]

Validity is an Imperfect Measurement

Some things bear repeating like this line from a November post on tbhis blog: “Validity is the “cardinal virtue in assessment” noted Bob and two other former colleagues Linda Steinberg, & Russell Almond, in 2003. ” There are some disagreements about validity among psychometricians; some think that the test should be tested for validity, not just its score. Harvey Goldstein articulates the protest well […]