Content validity is the extent to which an ARRT exam reflects the knowledge and skills needed to perform tasks in a discipline. For an ARRT exam to have good content validity, it should contain all content areas relevant to practice. Imagine measuring speed with only half a speedometer; it doesn't work. Similarly, without questions about Patient Care on ARRT's Radiation Therapy exam, the exam could not assess a candidate's competence. It would not reflect the knowledge and skills needed to practice as an R.T.(T), such as understanding a patient's rights. Such a situation could pose a risk to patient safety. In addition, legal consequences could include court cases that challenge employment decisions based on the test.
ARRT aims to create exams that have good content validity. To achieve this aim, ARRT conducts a comprehensive practice analysis (PA) about every five years for each discipline. This process involves a committee of volunteer subject matter experts (SMEs) who first review a discipline's existing tasks. In their review, committee members consider previous PAs and draw from their own experiences to develop a detailed survey of job tasks related to current practice. ARRT distributes this survey to technologists working in the field, and ARRT staff evaluate survey results. SMEs use the results and their own expertise to update a discipline's content specifications, content outline, and clinical experience requirements. After a PA finishes, the newly updated content specifications serve as a basis for creating new exam questions.
The PA process represents a critical phase in ARRT exam development, and volunteer SMEs are crucial to a successful PA. Through their efforts, SMEs ensure each content area relates to knowledge and skills needed in practice, even as a discipline changes over time. By involving practicing technologists in the PA process, ARRT connects exam questions to real-world content. The outcome is a fair exam with good content validity, which gives us confidence in a candidate's score and decisions based on that score.
