Validation of Professional Licensure Examinations

Although the unitary view of test validity has gained support recently, it has real limitations where professional licensing examinations are concerned. A strategy for validation of professional licensure tests requires modifying conventional approaches in three ways. First, a theory of professions must be incorporated into the test development process so as to acknowledge the social character of professions. Second, the importance of test design in the validation of licensing tests should be enhanced. Third, the concept of construct validation must be expanded to accommodate the special features of content that inhere to professional licensure testing. Methods for accomplishing these three things are described and the implications of these and other views discussed.