Consequences of Assessment and Accountability Systems Are Integral to the Argument-Based Approach to Validity

摘要

Considering consequences in the evaluation of validity is not new although it is still debated by Paul E. Newton (this issue) and others (Mehrens, 1997; Popham, 1997). The argument-based approach to validity entails an interpretative argument that explicitly identifies the proposed interpretations and uses of test scores and a validity argument that provides a structure for evaluating the interpretative argument (Kane, 2006). As Kane (2006) indicates, the interpretative argument "specifies the proposed interpretations and uses of test results by laying out a chain or network of inferences and assumptions leading from the observed performances to the conclusions and decisions based on the performances" (p. 23). The validity argument evaluates the interpretative argument's coherency, reasonableness of its inferences, and the plausibility of its assumptions.