Career Guidance: Program Evaluation and Validity

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Abstract
Career Guidance assessments have been validated and evaluated within a narrow framework. To view the test taker as a user of his or her own information and as the decision maker requires a change in perspective on both validity and additions to program evaluation concepts. Messick's (1980) framework for test validity focused on both test interpretation and test use, encouraging the expansion of validity to include both utility and relevance in addition to construct validity. Relevance implies data on the test taker's purpose and understanding of the meaning of assessment data. Utility implies that there are comparisons among methods or assessments, hence the usefulness of program evaluation concepts. Use of a broader concept of validity and program evaluation concepts should result in a better understanding of the individual's use of assessments in career guidance and the integration of assessments within career guidance programs.