Create a flyer for "Validity in Educational and Psychological Assessment"

'Countless books have addressed validity, but this is the first volume to provide a comprehensive treatment of the evolution of validity theory in the last century and a framework for evaluating educational and psychological testing in the 21^st century.'

'In this groundbreaking book, Newton and Shaw show how the "consensus" view of validity—that validity is not a property of tests, but of inferences made on the basis of the evidence they elicit—was at best rather shallow. Notably, the "consensus" view leaves unresolved important tensions between those who see validation as a never-ending process (e.g., Cronbach, Messick) and those who understand the needs of those who produce assessments to be able to say that they have undertaken necessary due diligence to attest to the quality of assessments (e.g., Ebel, Kane).

'At last - a scholarly and well-argued book that means validity, the key concept in any assessment, is no longer an essentially American debate. Its scope, logic and clarity will quickly make it the standard international text.'

'With concerns over the validity of educational and psychological tests and assessments growing, this book by Paul Newton and Stuart Shaw is a welcome, and much needed, contribution to the measurement literature.   Anyone concerned with the technical quality and value propositions surrounding large-scale testing and assessment ought to read this book.  Newton and Shaw take the reader through the history of “validity” as researchers across time and across disciplines use the term.  In doing so, they advance the debate by offering a unique

[This book] was enlightening in terms of helping me reflect on a range of issues around testing and validity. It provides a good way of thinking about these issues in a way that takes into account a range of views from different stakeholders about why a particular testing policy exists. The framework enables different agendas to be made explicit and tensions between different purposes of a particular policy laid bare. It provides a way of critically evaluating policy and making decisions about implementing testing and assessment policies.

An ideal text for post-graduate courses on educational or psychological assessment, and selections would also make strong contributions to reading lists for under-graduate courses. There is plenty in it for more seasoned scholars of assessment theory as well ... because the historical survey and analysis of the literature is so insightful

In an accessible, statistics-free treatment, Newton and Shaw first distinguish assessment validity from related concepts (such as research validity), before tracing its evolution through the primarily US-led assessment research tradition over the past century. As doctoral students we hope to tap into issues at the cutting edge of the field, and Newton and Shaw’s book enables this, providing the background and theory needed to contribute to contemporary assessment research.