validity and reliability in assessment pdf

The last thing a good test needs is validity. Additionally, if the students were to retake the assessment, their scores should be similar to the previous score, assuming that the students didn’t study more after taking the first assessment. If students of similar skill level take an assessment, they should should receive a similar grade. This means that the test results are consistent and dependable. ReliabilityĪ test also have to be reliable. When designing assessments, it’s usually worth it to have an assessment that is a little less like the real task if it is much more practical to do so. Additionally, you’d have to do all of that in the time and resources that your school provides you.

You would need to take ten students to a place where you could administer the assessment, actually administer the assessment, and grade the assessment. If you only needed one student to complete a task like shopping using a foreign language, it wouldn’t be much of a hassle however, imagine having a class of ten students. The bigger issue with practicality is that if you have a class of many students, it would be nearly impossible for all students to be able to complete a task like this in a reasonable amount of time. If they fail the task, there really isn’t much of a risk of losing anything. If the target task is using a foreign language to buy an item and you have access to speakers of that language, a student could go and try doing the actual task. This however, wouldn’t be an issue if the target task was something less risky. The first reason why this isn’t practical is that if a student messes up, the business could really suffer.

If you are testing an English as a second language learner and their ability to provide customer service in English while working in a hotel, the ideal way to test and see if a learner can actually do that task is to actually have the learner go to a hotel and work with customers however, this isn’t very practical. In an ideal world all assessments would be identical to what the target task is. PracticalityĮvery good assessment has to be practical. In this article I’m going to go over what each of these are and why they are important for assessments. What makes up a good assessment? Any good assessment will be practical, reliable, and valid.

Validity and reliability in assessment pdf