Limitations of using students' self-reports of academic development as proxies for traditional achievement measures

An important issue in national assessment efforts is how best to measure the outcomes of college. While initial discussions about a national collegiate assessment focused on the reliability, validity, and feasibility of using achievement tests to measure student learning, subsequent discussions have raised the possibility of using students' self-reports of academic development as proxies for achievement test scores. The present study examines the stability of the relationships among self-reports and test scores across samples of two- and four-year colleges and universities. Multitrait-multimethod analyses indicated that self-reports and test scores developed from the same set of test specifications do measure the same constructs, although the scores from one type of measurement may not be ''substitutable'' for scores from the other type of measurement. In addition, the analyses produced ambiguous results concerning the stability of relationships across different types of institutions.