How Could We Improve The Validity of The Scores?

         The scores of our assessment procedures must be valid in order to be fair with our students and their work. So a specific criteria was developed in order to improve the validity of the scores. This criteria includes seven sub-headings that will help the teacher in providing valid scores. 
       Content representativeness and relevance is the first important sub-heading that helps in improving validity. It is very important that the teacher provides assessment procedures that are related to the content that is explained and presented in the class, and this content must be worth learning. 
       The second one is related to the thinking skills and processes presented in the assessment procedure. The teacher must provide tasks that require students to integrate and use several thinking skills that they must use and apply.
       The third one is related to consistency with other classroom assessments. The tasks that teacher provide must not be too easy nor too hard because there won't be consistency in the results and the students will attain nearly the same results and thus leads to lower validity.
       The fourth one is related to reliability and objectivity of the assessment procedures. The results of such assessments must be reliable, i.e. consistent, and this would happen when scoring rubrics are used. Also objectivity means that two persons assign the same scores to the same students, which leads to consistency. 
      The fifth one is related to fairness to different types of students. The assessment tasks must be understood by students with different backgrounds and abilities. The students' abilities in learning must be taken into consideration, since there are students who have learning difficulties or certain disabilities.
      The sixth category refers to economy and efficiency in which the teacher uses a reasonable amount of time to construct and administer assessment, and the assessment procedure must not be immediately put, but the teacher must take her time in developing it to be fair with all students.
      The last category is related to multiple assessment usage in which the assessment results must be used in conjunction with other assessment results such as those taken from homework, classroom participation and projects. 
All these points help in improving the validity of an assessment procedure, and that each teacher must take into consideration when crafting her own exams and assessments.