Validity and Reliability

1. Reliability-"refers to the consistency with which it yields the same rank for individuals who take the test more than once." (Kubiszyn 338)

1.1. Making sure that tests are valid and reliable enables us to get better results. When test measures exactly what they are suppose to, educators are able to monitor progress and make changes if necessary.

2. Validity- measures exactly what it is suppose to measure

3. Types of validity evidence

3.1. content validity evidence-designed to make sure test questions respond to what the user decides should be covered on a test. (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010)

3.2. criterion related validity-evidence that scores are correlated with an external criterion (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010).

3.2.1. concurrent criterion related validity- deals with measures that can be adminstered at the same time as the measure to be validated. Kubiszyn, p. 327

3.2.1.1. Predictive validity evidence- measures how an examinee will do over a period of time. Example: SAT

3.2.2. Construct validity evidence-relationship with other information corresponds well with the same theory. Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010, p.

4. Types of Reliabilty

4.1. Test-Retest-a test is given twice and the correclation between the first set of scores and second set is determined. (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010, p. 338.)

4.1.1. Internal Consistency- items should be correlated and the test should be internally consistent.( Kubiszyn 340)

4.2. Alternate forms-two equivalent forms used to obtain an estimate of the reliability of scores from the test. (Kubiszyn & Borich, 2010)

5. Why is this important to learning and assessment?

5.1. Validity and Reliabilty work hand and hand which is also very important to learning and assessment.The information needs to be reliable in order to obtain a valid assessment.