| This study evaluates the validity of the essay test as a college admissions screening factor in Korea according to the unified view on validity. In this unified view, which has been regarded as a kind of consensus among current validity theorists, validity is a unitary evaluative judgment making use of all possible sources of evidence accompanied by theoretical rationale, including the value implications and the consequences of the test use. In order to apply this unified view in the study, a validation framework, the evaluative approach to validation, was developed. The data of this study were composed of primary and pre-existing data. The primary data were collected from six high schools and one university in Korea through surveys and interviews. A total of 775 stakeholders in the essay test participated in the surveys, and 25 in the interviews. As for the pre-existing data, the scores of the high school records, the CSAT and the essay test and the first semester GPAs were collected. This study has three significant findings. First, the study makes the following conclusion about the unitary evaluative judgment on the validity of the essay test: though the essay test scores moderately predict the GPAs that are regarded as an indicator of students' academic abilities in universities, the essay test has problems in measuring what the essay test intends to assess and has negative effects on the secondary education curriculum and the access to higher education. Second, the study identifies and elaborates on the gaps in the perceptions of stakeholders on the essay test. Finally, the development of a framework for validation, that is, the evaluative approach to validation, is a significant finding of this study. This framework will contribute to narrowing the gap between validity theory and practice. |
