Which statement best summarizes concern about external validity in testing?

• A. The test questions do not measure various aspects of the disability effectively.
• B. The environment in which the test is conducted is not realistic, and so the child's behavior during the test does not reflect the way she actually behaves and learns in real life.
• C. The test results contain significant measurement error.
• D. The experts who conducted the test is not qualified to perform it.

Answer: (B)

External validity concerns generalizing test results to real-life settings. If the testing environment isn’t realistic, the child’s behaviors during the test may reflect how she behaves in that specific setting rather than how she functions in everyday life. This limitation means we can’t confidently apply the test findings to real-world situations like school or home, which is the essence of external validity.

The other issues point to different concerns: one relates to whether the test covers the full range of the disability (content/construct validity), another to measurement error or unreliability in the results, and another to whether the tester’s qualifications affect the outcome. These do not specifically address how well findings generalize beyond the testing context.