Publisher: Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association     

The purposes of this chapter are to trace the evolution of the current consensus on test validity and to point toward the direction of the next consensus. How have the definition of validity and methods of investigation changed over time? What common understandings are held currently by measurement theorists in education and psychology about the evaluation of test validity? What theoretical controversies or discrepancies between theory and practice exist that, if resolved, would strengthen both theory and practice?