Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
EPSY 4010
Validity, Reliability, and Fairness
Throughout EPSY 4010, I have become familiar with three concepts absolutely crucial to
assessment. Weekly readings, lectures, and assignments helped reinforce the important ideas of
validity, reliability, and fairness. Validity is the most significant aspect of assessment we
discussed throughout the course. For an assessment to be valid, the assessment must actually
measure the curricular aims that it is supposed to address. If a test is valid, it accurately assesses
students on desired content standards and allows the teachers to accurately interpret results and
assessment to measure what the assessment seeks to measure. Fairness is closely tied to validity.
assessment to be fair, it must allow students of diverse backgrounds to have equal opportunity to
exhibit their understanding. Although I was unfamiliar with these concepts essential to
assessment at the beginning of the semester, this course has supported my understanding of these
Since the very start of this course, these three themes have been very apparent. After
crafting the initial assessment belief statement, I read the WPJ chapters 3, 4, and 5. Chapter 3
allowed me to become familiar with the idea of reliability. This chapter discussed three types of
reliability evidence as well as standard measurement error and how to compute it. Chapter 4
discussed the importance of validity to assessment. This chapter elaborated on the concept of
validity by discussing four sources of validity evidence as well as the important relationship
between reliability and validity. Chapter 5 described the idea of fairness and how avoiding
assessment bias allows students of all races, genders, and religions to succeed and demonstrate
their learning equally. The chapter also discussed accommodations and modifications that should
be made when assessing students with disabilities as well as English language learners. These
chapters did a great job of introducing these themes that would be continually expanded on
validity, and fairness. An in class activity incorporating a bulls-eye poster helped reinforce the
concepts of validity and reliability. This visual representation of the two concepts really stuck
with me throughout the course and gave me a graphic guide to understand the relationship
between these two big ideas. Although both of these themes are essential to crafting assessments,
one can have an assessment that is reliable but not valid. However, one cannot have an
assessment that is valid but not reliable. Therefore, reliability is absolutely necessary for an
assessment to be valid. A class lecture also helped clarify the theme of fairness. An early
PowerPoint illustrated how an assessment can be biased and offensive. Looking at the example
of Mr. and Mrs. Smith, I was able to clearly see how negative stereotypes and implied slurs
could be implemented in the creation of assessments. This example opened my eyes to the issue
of fairness in assessment and allowed me to consider how unfair assessments can be biased
Although course readings and lectures were able to introduce me to these important
themes in assessment, it was not until the classroom assessment plan assignment that I was able
to personally grapple with these ideas and work to create an assessment that was reliable, valid,
and fair. The classroom assessment plan initially overwhelmed me but by working through the
assessment planning process, I was able to hone my skills as an educator and create a series of
assessments that were conscious of the big themes discussed in the course. By identifying a set
of standards and crafting a series of objectives, I was able to develop formative, summative, and
performance assessments. With my standards in mind, I made assessments that directly evaluated
students on the content standards. Each formative assessment I created allowed the teacher to
assess students’ ability to meet the objectives and standards of the unit. Using the data collected
from these assessments, the teacher could modify instruction in order to support student
understanding. By crafting a table of specifications, I was able to create test items that explicitly
assessed students on the desired objectives and standards. Through this table of specifications as
well as other aspects of the assessment plan, I was able to create assessments that supported the
concept of validity. The classroom assessment plan also allowed me to be conscious of fairness.
After creating each test item, I would reread the item and see if the wording or concepts was
offensive or if the question had evidence of other assessment bias. Despite the difficulty of the
assignment, the classroom assessment plan gave me an invaluable experience that allowed me to
With student teaching quickly approaching, I hope to always have these three big themes
for my World Understanding course, I will remember the readings, lectures, and assignments in
this course that helped support the themes of reliability, validity, and fairness. I hope that I will
be able to create assessments that allow me to make accurate inferences about student
student understanding and achievement within my classroom. As a student, the mere mention of
the word “assessment” was enough to instill feelings of anxiety and apprehension. With the help
of this class as well as my experiences in Coventry High School, I can now see assessment as an
absolutely crucial element of education that allows teachers to evaluate student understanding
and monitor student progress. Although I initially perceived assessment as tests and quizzes
designed to assign student grades, I now understand that assessment transcends just tests and
quizzes and includes formative and performance assessments crucial to learning. Through
creating valid, reliable, and fair assessments, teachers can measure student understanding of
content standards and objectives that need to be met in education. Assessment allows educators
to gauge what students understand, what they don’t understand, and what needs to be reinforced.
Assessment is not only an important tool that allows educators to analyze student
understanding and track progress, but it is an invaluable aspect of education that allows teachers
to evaluate their own teaching. While I once thought that assessment was a scheme created by
teachers to create stress in student lives, I now see assessment as a lens through which teachers
can examine their own teaching and consider what adjustments need to be made in order to
further student understanding. Formative assessments allow teachers to examine their own
teaching and implement modifications to instruction so that students can meet objectives and
standards. With this in mind, assessments are not only helpful in regards to evaluating student
achievement, but they are also beneficial tools that allow teachers to assess their own
the results to students, parents, and administration. Without well-crafted assessments, teachers
would have no reliable way to make inferences about student achievement and growth over time.
As an educator, I am responsible for communicating the results of student learning to the parents
and grades that reflect student understanding in a clear and quantifiable way. With the data
collected from these assessments, I can easily visualize student progress and discuss trends and
These assessments help hold both the students and myself as an educator accountable for
the learning that goes on in my classroom. Despite my relationship with assessment as a student,
I can now see the incredible value that assessment has to education. As a pre-service teacher, I
want to develop more skills and strategies that allow me to create and use assessment effectively
classroom, I can have a beneficial system that allows me to gauge student understanding,
evaluate my own teaching, and communicate student achievement in a clear and concise manner.
Assessments may seem overwhelming at times for both teachers and students, but I believe that
teachers should continuously work to perfect the craft of using assessment in order to further
The word “assessment” always makes me think back to my first ever quiz. In fifth grade,
my social studies teacher gave my class our first ever formal assessment. We were given a map
of the United States and asked to label all of the states and their capitals. Half way through the
quiz I totally blanked on the whole mid-west region. The stress totally overwhelmed me and I
ended up leaving a large area of the map blank. Before the quiz was even collected I was aware
of what just happened. I had failed my first assessment in school. Since then, my studying skills
as well as my sense of geography have improved but that feeling of failing has stuck with me.
After receiving an F on my first quiz, I became obsessed with grades and success. Instead of
learning the material because I was interested in it, I found myself thinking about how I could be
tested on the material and working to make sure that I could receive the grade I wanted.
Although the sight of an exam on a college syllabus still invokes the memory of that
geography quiz and strikes some fear into me, my relationship towards assessment has started to
shift. Through the lens of a pre-service teacher I have been able to see the importance of tracking
student progress in a quantifiable manner. It’s necessary for teachers, students, and parents to be
understanding of its role in the world of education, I still think back to the stress and fear that test
taking can cause. I would love if the students I teach learn the information because the content is
interesting and they are wholly engaged. Unfortunately, many students are driven by the anxiety
of testing instead of the interest in the course. I dislike that teachers have to manipulate their
curriculum to teach test taking techniques and tweak content to cater towards a standardized
assessment.
While the term “assessment” may instill negative memories and emotions in of me, I
don’t want to get rid of assessment entirely. I want to be able to assess student learning in a way
that doesn’t cause my students immense stress and doesn’t make it so that I have to take time out
education but I would like to learn how to make it so that my students’ wellbeing and
relationship to the course material don’t suffer from testing. Through this course I hope to learn
how to make “assessment” a more positive term and help create a classroom environment where
students are more concerned with the information they are learning instead of the grade they are
receiving.