Validating test score meaning and defending test score use: different aims, different methods

Advances in validity theory and alacrity in validation practice have suffered because the term validity has been used to refer to two incompatible concerns: (1) the degree of support for specified interpretations of test scores (i.e. intended score meaning) and (2) the degree of support for specified applications (i.e. intended test uses). This article provides a brief summary of current validity theory, explication of a critical flaw in the current conceptualisation of validity, and a framework that both accommodates and differentiates validation of test score inferences and justification of test use.