validity-McNamara & Nelson-Barber

Validity: testing the test\McNamara Ch. 5
The topic of validity at first brings to mind my logics and ethics class I took as an undergraduate. The terminology seemed confusing and I felt like I was going to fail the class. I remembered that there are degrees of validity based on the logic and that’s what threw mw off. Now, in this reading- the subject is easier to understand in this context of assessment. There are definitely a lot of things to consider and I wonder how a teacher can remember all of it when creating assessments for their class. Of course having a critical pedagogy most likely would help.
The example given of content validity being that tests don’t capture the whole person was delight to see in text, because it is a fact that there are people do not do well with paper-pencil tests but have the oral fluency in the language. This is definitely the case out here in our area. I believe this is one of the reasons why many of our students who graduate just stay home, because the tests they’ve taken label them negatively, to where they do not have the confidence to go out into the world on their own. So what could work then for our students here is what I would like to be on a quest for.
It was surprising to see that, “the more complex the content of performance, the more there is to jeopardize the validity of the ratings (52).”
Speculation and empiricism were a surprise to brought up finally in the conclusion of the chapter. Speculation- “reasoning and logical analysis about the nature of languages and language use, and of the nature of performance,” (as outlined in chapter 2.?hmmmm.) “Empiricism means subjectinbg such theorizing and specific implications of particular twesting practices to examination in the light of data from test trials and operational test administrations (54).”


Nelson-Barber, S. & Trumbull, E. (2007). Making assessment practices valid for indigenous American students. Journal of American Indian Education (3, 4), 132-147.
This article reminded me of the fact that there is a lot of research done on indigenous people, but nothing is done about it. In fact sometimes I think they do it just to degrade us and highlight the negatives instead of the positives. And it seems like they don't get real informed consents like the IRB has us doing for our research. Anyways, this article luckily came from an insider (technical name temporarily forgotten at this time) who proved to be well informed and has the ability to reinforce what the indigenous people's awareness of these standardized testing situations effects on the children and their communities to the public in this medium. I wonder if the author read the Maori articles?
I liked that they shared a school’s assessment procedures of using two scoring guides- one for the funds of knowledge and one for the academic knowledge. I definitely would love to have time to create those kind, especially now, since I’m doing my research on this topic, and I am supposed to be doing action research to compare the effects but this way sounds better- to incorporate both kinds of knowledge into the assessment.! Why didn’t I think of that????
Oh- when I read about the executive orders I got so frusterated and blamed the state of Alaska. When I was living on a reservation in Washington state, I learned that the tribe didn’t have to answer to the state, only to the feds, but that the state would find ways to impede or interfere with the tribes progress toward self-sufficiency- so this reminds me of the word hegemony. I think or wouldn’t be surprised if Alaska does the same thing as Washington state did and does when it comes to indigenous rights.
Besides asking if the test developers know who they’re dealing with, the other question is whether or not the state education departments really know and understand what the tests are about that they are requiring our students to take- besides it’s economic cost, let alone it’s emotional costs. Here I am concerned about others when I should be relating this stuff to me.... and I will need to work on that.