A Trustworthy Friend

Chapter 4- Validity and Reliability

Summary: Validity and reliability are inseparable from one another because an assessment that contained one and not the other would surely be unacceptable. In preparation for making assessments, teachers must be sure to prepare questions that are valid and fairly test all material covered, not just one particular segment of the lesson more than the others. The test must also be fair in a sense that the same results would be yielded if tested at another time or with a different set of questions. You can make sure a test is valid by interpreting the results of the assessment according to the four categories of validity and analyzing the evidences. When testing for reliability, the measure for error is usually minimum. If it goes beyond that small perimeter of error that has been set, further analysis should be done.

Reflection: I definitely want to make sure that when I make assessments in my classroom, they will be reliable and valid. I cannot be certain that a test I have given fits these two categories until I receive the results and I am able to analyze them. I can take steps to ensure I cover most of the content and construct questions that could be repeated in a different way in order to make my tests valid and reliable. I think the trickiest part in all of this would be constructing and grading a performance task without subjecting any bias onto the projects and without comparing the results based on the best student’s performance. I would do my best to grade each student based on the rubric and have another person grade them also so that we can combine our results.