Which set represents principal forms of validity used to evaluate assessments?

• A. Face validity, ecological validity, and predictive validity
• B. Reliability, validity, and fairness
• C. Content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity
• D. Content validity only

Answer: (C)

Validity in assessments means making sure the test measures what it’s intended to measure and supports the decisions based on its results. The main forms used to judge this are content validity, criterion-related validity, and construct validity. Content validity asks whether the test items represent the full range of topics or skills the test is meant to cover, such as a math exam including problems from all the topics specified in the syllabus. Criterion-related validity looks at how well test scores relate to external criteria or outcomes, like how well a test predicts future performance or correlates with a established standard measure. Construct validity focuses on whether the test truly measures the underlying characteristic it claims to assess, supported by how results relate to other measures of the same construct and by the test’s internal structure.

Other terms mentioned aren’t the principal forms used to evaluate validity. Face validity is about whether the test appears to measure what it should to test-takers, not about whether it truly does. Ecological validity concerns real-world applicability rather than the test’s alignment with the domain or construct. Reliability and fairness are important quality aspects, but they’re not forms of validity themselves. D is incomplete because it only mentions content validity, leaving out the crucial other forms.