Engaging in iterative evidence-building to develop and validate measures of new constructs, or for new uses

Implementing evidence based practices inevitably leads to new questions and needs, such as requiring new measures or new uses for existing measures, which become the focus of new measurement work.

The overarching goal of TLA’s Measurement Agenda is to unify the evidence and implementation cycles so that evidence-based practices are implemented in order to provide each student with an effective, equitable, and engaging education that enables them to reach their full potential.

This strategy contributes to that goal by ensuring that relevant, necessary, valid, and reliable measures are developed.

In order for the evidence and implementation cycles to truly be unified, applied research is necessary to build on the new problems of practice that surface as evidence-based practices are implemented. New constructs, or new perspectives on older constructs, constantly arise from practice – but knowing what should be measured does not guarantee that it can be measured.

Researchers and funders should focus measure development on stated, specific needs from the field in order to build measures of relevant constructs, and validate them for relevant uses.