Construct Validity and Reliability of the Scale of Attitudes towards External Assessments Applied on a Large Scale

Validade de Construto e Confiabilidade da Escala de Atitudes perante as Avaliações Externas Aplicadas em Larga Escala

Validez de Constructo y Confiabilidad de la Escala de Actitudes ante las Evaluaciones Externas a Gran Escala

Abstract

The Scale of Attitudes towards External Assessments applied on a Large-Scale was developed to capture what basic education teachers think, feel, and how they behave in response to this type of assessment. Considering the potential of the instrument to support management decisions in the field of educational assessment policies, this article aimed to evaluate construct validity, via factor analysis, as well as scale reliability, via composite reliability of the scale, based on its application to a sample of teachers affiliated with the Education Department of Espírito Santo/Brazil. This is a quantitative, nonexperimental, instrumental study that involved 405 teachers from the public school network, whose results indicate adequate psychometric indices and a satisfactory factor structure consistent with the proposed three-dimensional attitude construct. The statistical coefficients found at the level of the analyses performed legitimize its use for the development of public policies and effective practices in the educational field.

Keywords:
psychometrics; attitudes scale; teachers; educational research; factor analysis