Determining the Validity of Placement Exams for Developmental College Curricula

Although testing basic skills of college freshmen for placement in remedial level math, writing, and other courses is widespread, critics contend that few placement systems are examined for their empirical validity and social consequences. Using Messick's (1988, 1989) theoretical work in construct validity as a guide, this article identifies underlying hypotheses to investigate when validating placement test decisions, offers guidelines on validating placement decisions, and applies these hypotheses and guidelines in a validation study of the Written English Expression Placement Test (WEEPT). The findings, which do not support use of the WEEPT, demonstrate how a technically reputable test can have poor contextual validity and utility for particular placement decisions.