Validity in Educational and Psychological Assessment

Paul E. Newton is Professor of Educational Assessment at the Institute of Education, University of London. His research focuses primarily upon issues related to the evaluation of large-scale educational assessment systems, and he is particularly interested in theories of validity for educational and psychological measurement, past and present. He has published on a range of assessment topics, including validity, comparability, assessment purposes, national curriculum test reliability, and the public understanding of measurement inaccuracy. Having obtained a PhD in developmental psychology, Paul moved into educational assessment and has spent most of his career as a researcher within a range of assessment agencies – including the Associated Examining Board, the National Foundation for Educational Research, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, Ofqual and Cambridge Assessment. Paul is a member of the Editorial Board of the international journal Assessment in Education: Policy, Principles and Practice and has served on a variety of national and international committees, including the Executive Committee of the International Association for Educational Assessment. He was a member of the Assessment Reform Group, until its retirement in 2010, and is a Fellow of the Association for Educational Assessment – Europe. Validity and Validation The Genesis of Validity: Mid-1800s-1951 The Fragmentation of Validity: 1952-1974 The (Re)Unification of Validity: 1975-1999 The Deconstruction of Validity: 2000-2012 Twenty-first-century Evaluation