What is the measure used to determine how well a test content represents the subject area?

Content validity is the measure that assesses how well the items on a test represent the knowledge or skills that the test is intended to evaluate. This concept is crucial in educational settings because it ensures that the test covers the full scope of the subject matter, without omitting important aspects or introducing irrelevant items.

When developing assessments, educators must ensure that the questions are aligned with learning objectives and curricular standards. High content validity means that if a test claims to measure a specific domain or skill, it indeed includes content that accurately reflects that domain. For instance, if a mathematics test includes a wide variety of problems that encompass all relevant areas of the subject—such as algebra, geometry, and statistics—it is demonstrating strong content validity.

The other options represent different validity types. Criterion-related validity examines how well one measure predicts or correlates with an outcome based on another measure, while predictive validity is a subset of criterion-related validity focused specifically on future performance. Reliability refers to the consistency of a test's results over time or across different applications, which is distinct from the question of whether the test effectively represents the subject area.