Reliability The Criteria of a Good Test
claimed by having high content validity if a sample of a great variety of items represen
ting the area in which the students’ ability is being measured.
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Content validity is also called curricular validity, because materials that will be tested are based on curriculum. As Gareis and Grand explains that content
validity concerned with how far an assessment is in line with the intended learning outcomes, standards, or objectives of an instructional unit.
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Therefore, If the test which is given to the students does not have a content validity, there will be consequences, there are: the students cannot demonstrate
skills that they possess if they are not tested, and also that irrelevant items are presented that students will likely answer incorrectly only because the content
was not taught.
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However, there is a controversy of using the content validity in validating the test. One of the experts, who have a controversy with it, is Anastasi in the
Construct of the Content Validity Journal by Sireci. She described that content validity is essential to measure the evaluation of achievement test. It means that
the content validity can not be used in validating other types of test, such as: aptitude or personality test. Meanwhile, other experts; such as: Cronbach and
Meehl in the Construct of the Content Validity Journal by Sireci revised that the four types of test validity is emphasized on a construct validity because it
can be applied to all the test.
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Although, there is a controversy in using the content validity for validating the test, content validity still become one of the type of test validity which
concern in validating the conformity of the test items with the samples of course unit. As American Psychological Association in the most recent version
of Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing emphasized “a unitary
31
J. Stanley Ahmann and Marvin D. Glock, Evaluating Pupil Growth: Principles of Tests and Measurement, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc, 1967, 3
rd
Edition, p. 287.
32
Christopher R. Gareis and Leslie W. Grant, Teacher-Made Assessments: How to Connect Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Learning, New York: Eye On Education, Inc, 2008, p. 37.
33
Wiersema, op.cit., p. 185.
34
Stephen G. Sireci, The Construct of the Content Validity, JSTOR Journal, Vol. 45, 1998, p. 90-91.
conceptualization of validity, retained the importance of content domain representation.”
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In addition, based on Hughes, there are two importance things of content validity. First,
“the grater test’s content validity, the more likely it is to be an accurate measure of what it is supposed to measure. Secondly, a test is likely to
have a harmful backwash effect. Areas which are not tested are likely become areas ignored in teaching and learning. The best content is a fair reflection of
these ”.
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To sum up, the writer assumes that a content validity measures how well the subject matter covered in a test and it can be analyzed by using the checklist
table for measuring the conformity between the tests content with what should be measured, such as: the indicators in syllabus.