Examining Possible Construct Changes to a Licensure Test by Evaluating Equating Requirements

We demonstrate how to assess the potential changes to a test's score scale necessitated by changes to the test specifications when a field study is not feasible. We used a licensure test, which is currently under revision, as an example. We created two research forms from an actual form of the test. One research form was developed with the current specifications and the other was developed with the redesigned (new) specifications in terms of the proportion (not number) of items in each category. We examined whether the current and redesigned tests measure the same construct and have the same level of reliability. Then we used subpopulation invariance indices to assess the equatability of the redesigned test to the current test using data sets from actual operational administrations of the current test. The results suggest that the change in test specifications might be great enough that the current and redesigned test scores could not be considered exchangeable across the score range. However, the score s...