A validation study of the Florida High School Competency Test

Minimum competency tests have become an essential component of academic curricula in the State of Florida. However, Florida\u27s legislature has not conducted any validation studies other than assuring that the test exhibits evidence of content validity. This study examined Florida\u27s minimum competency test, called the High School Competency Test (HSCT), for evidence of construct validity via exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques. The analyses indicated a two factor solution which measured competencies in communication and mathematics, and were found to be stable across two independent samples.The HSCT was compared to the Grade Ten Assessment Test (GTAT), an achievement test, by employing confirmatory factor analytic techniques with the use of the structural equation program LISREL8, as well as correlational techniques to examine whether or not these competencies were significantly different from academic achievement. This analysis showed that there was a strong relationship between the constructs of the two examinations. Therefore, the findings did not support the conclusion that the HSCT and the GTAT assess different constructs