What is convergent validity?

Convergent validity refers to the extent to which a new test correlates with an established measure that assesses the same construct. This type of validity is crucial in psycho-educational testing because it provides evidence that the new assessment is measuring what it intends to measure. For instance, if a new intelligence test correlates highly with a well-established intelligence test, it suggests that both instruments are evaluating the same underlying construct of intelligence. High correlations imply that both tests can be trusted to provide similar insight into the trait being measured, thereby confirming the new test's validity.

The other options touch on different concepts in psychometrics, such as cultural sensitivity in test administration, the statistical concept of variance explanation, and the idea of discriminant validity, which assesses whether tests that are supposed to measure different constructs yield different results. However, these do not define convergent validity, which specifically focuses on the relationship between new and established measures of the same construct.