ERIC Number: EJ993535
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Pages: 5
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1536-6367
EISSN: N/A
EPMA Professionals--Servants or Masters?
Black, Paul
Measurement: Interdisciplinary Research and Perspectives, v10 n1-2 p33-37 2012
Insofar as the title of this piece might call for a straightforward answer, it seems obvious that EPMA professionals are servants. Viewed in this perspective, Paul E. Newton's analysis is carefully balanced, in that it respects the complex history of the concerns of the professionals, whilst moving towards conclusions that place the needs of the users at the forefront. This is not to say that all responsibility for ensuring validity lies with the professionals. Indeed it follows from the clarifications proposed in this article that this responsibility is, and has to be, a shared one. This essential interplay between the responsibilities of both providers and users of an assessment is a key feature of Newton's analysis. The main features of this analysis that seem relevant here are, first, that validity is not simply a function of the test itself but also of the interpretation and use of results--so that responsibility for any use is shared by all stakeholders. For the test providers, they should be able to argue that appropriate interpretation of the outcomes of a correctly administered assessment will be fit for making certain kinds of decisions, a claim that implies that the assessment procedure can be used to measure the attribute entailed by that decision. However, different users have a role to play in declaring validity insofar as they judge the link between attributes, measurement, and decisions from different perspectives. The main elaboration of this argument, which I wish to develop here, is to explore the variety of situations in education within which the clarity sought in Newton's treatment is an important target. To do this, I consider a few examples, with particular relevance to three agencies involved in any assessment episode, namely the teachers, the test providers, and the users of the outcomes.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Authoring Institution: N/A
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