Score Reliability: Contemporary Thinking on Reliability Issues

--Richard L. Gorsuch, Director of Research in Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary

Should a high school diploma be awarded to students based on their score on a final exit exam? Should businesses deny employment to people based on their score on a personality test? In a world of "high stakes" testing, it has become more important than ever to make certain the scores on which we base our decisions are reliable. Aimed at helping researchers create and evaluate scores better, this reader presents the basic concepts of classical (or "true score") and modern ("generalizability") test theory. Beginning with a review of reliability and validity issues in measurement, the book covers score reliability, reliability induction, and reliability generalization. Exercises with sample data are included at the end of each section so readers can demonstrate knowledge of the principles.

Bruce Thompson is Professor and Distinguished Research Scholar, Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, and Adjunct Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine (Houston). He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and an elected member of the Executive Council of the American Educational Research Association. Thompson is also the editor of the Sage Publications journal Educational and Psychological Measurement.