Proposing a Framework of Validity Evidence for a Score Report

摘要

Score reports are critical to the valid use of test scores and the interpretability of score reports has been recommended to be included as one type of validity evidence in validation research. In practice, how to support the validity argument for a score report has become the focus of practitioners’ concern. In this paper, the authors first emphasize the significance of score reporting in test development before going on to review what a score report is, what it may possibly contain, validity and validation. Based on previous literature on validity of reports, a four-source framework of validity evidence for a score report is thus proposed. The four sources are 1) content alignment, 2) users’ correct interpretation, 3) users’ appropriate actions and 4) users’ perception. Possible methods of collecting these different kinds of evidence are also suggested.