Recognizing this truth is important because even when educational assessments don\u2019t provide contextual information, students still generate it themselves. For example, students are likely to think about the situations and places where they use a particular skill during their everyday lives when deciding how to respond to a test question. Those \u201ccontexts\u201d may differ greatly depending on a student\u2019s background and experiences, which may lead to decreased assessment validity and subgroup score differences.<\/p>\n
Closing this \u201ccontext gap\u201d has become a priority for educators and assessors. In our view, solutions can be found by exploring best practices generated within another high-stakes assessment arena\u2014pre-employment testing.<\/p>\n
For decades, an assessment methodology known as \u201csituational judgment\u201d has proven to be both a reliable and valid hiring tool and an engaging experience for candidates. While the use of SJTs has recently expanded into domains such as credentialing, they are rarely seen within the educational assessment field. Based on our experience and lessons learned deploying the situational judgment test (SJT) methodology across a number of high-stakes testing programs, we believe SJTs offer promising applications within the educational assessment arena.<\/p>\n<\/div>