Reliability and Validity

                 When looking for assessment instrument to measure reading ability I will recommend Test A which shows high validity but there is no information about its validity other than reliability. Validity measures the extent in which the test claims to measure and thus if no validity there is no confidence in what you are doing.  Reliability, on the other hand, is the quantity of measurement which gives the same results over and over again without identifying the internal and external effects affecting the children in the classroom.

    The reasons as to why I will recommend the use of validity as an assessment instrument is:-

• It can measure the child’s capabilities in class in respect to their intelligence such that some children are good at reading other than mathematics and vice versa
• It figures out problems the students are likely to face e.g.; family issues, general mental ability, depressives and also the motivational problems experienced by the children.
• It ensures that the test is measured to the professional standards needed to achieve the target in a given school or institution both internal and external giving good results and knowledge on how to manage the school.

I will disagree with reliability as an assessment instrument because:-

• It`s involved in hitting the target consistently but systematically measures the wrong value for the children concerned.
• It mostly gives the final results in a particular group of children without critically checking on their abilities and inabilities.

Reliability should be increased by checking on the child`s abilities in intelligence test, attention test, and assessment test.

References

O’Grady, M. G., & Dusing, S. C. (2015). Reliability and Validity of Play-Based Assessments of Motor and Cognitive Skills for Infants and Young Children: A Systematic Review. Physical Therapy, 95(1), 25-38. doi:10.2522/ptj.20140111

Barbu, O. C., Levine-Donnerstein, D., Marx, R. W., & Yaden, D. J. (2013). Reliability and Validity of the Devereux Early Childhood Assessment (DECA) as a Function of Parent and Teacher Ratings. Journal Of Psychoeducational Assessment, 31(5), 469-481.

Hardy, P., & Aruguete, M. (2014). Needs assessment in STEM disciplines: reliability, validity and factor structure of the Student Support Needs Scale (SSNS). Assessment & Evaluation In Higher Education, 39(5), 553-562.