What type of validity are colleges concerned about when they rely on high school GPA instead of standardized test scores?

Colleges are primarily concerned with criterion validity when they rely on high school GPA as a predictor of a student's potential success in college, rather than using standardized test scores. Criterion validity refers to how well one measure predicts an outcome based on another measure. In this context, high school GPA is used as a criterion to evaluate how well it predicts success in college, such as grades in college courses or degree completion.

High school GPA is often seen as a relevant indicator of a student's academic performance and ability to handle college-level coursework. If colleges find that students with higher GPAs tend to perform better in college, this strengthens the criterion validity of high school GPA as a predictor for future academic success.

Other types of validity, such as content validity, relate to whether a test covers the relevant material or domain it is supposed to measure. Construct validity assesses whether a test truly measures the theoretical construct it claims to assess, and face validity concerns whether a test appears, on the surface, to measure what it is intended to measure. While these concepts are important in research methodology, they are not the primary concern for colleges focusing on the predictive relationship between high school GPA and college performance.