The passage looks to be a part of literary piece and it is written in past tense

Content Validity

Content validity basically refers to the fact that the test paper is based on the syllabus and is therefore has direct relevance in Achievement tests.
What does it mean ‘The paper is based on syllabus’? Suppose that the syllabus includes five components: grammar, listening, speaking, reading, and writing. If the test paper includes questions only from grammar component, is the paper based on syllabus? Yes. The questions are based on the syllabus, but only on one component of the syllabus. Thus ‘based on the syllabus’ does not mean including ‘some’ questions from ‘some’ areas. There must be representative sample of questions from all the components of the syllabus.
Is it sufficient to say that there must be representative samples of questions from all the areas of the syllabus? Consider the following situation:

Component	Grammar	Listening	Speaking	Reading	Writing
No. of teaching hours/Lessons	10	15	20	20	15
No. of questions	5	1	1	4	2

After 80 hours of teaching, the test was administered. Only 10 hours were spent on grammar teaching but almost half of the test paper is based on grammar, where as 20 hours of teaching on the speaking skill had not been assessed only through one question. At first sight, it seems that there is a representative sample of questions from all the areas of the syllabus. But this is not reasonable: the respective areas are not given due weight in the paper. Why do we include more grammar questions if grammar is the component which is given the lowest weight in the syllabus. It is not possible to comment that such a test paper is ‘based on the syllabus’. If the questions are given in the following way, it can be justified.

Component	Grammar	Listening	Speaking	Reading	Writing
No. of teaching hours/Lessons	10	15	20	20	15
No. of questions	2	3	4	4	3

Therefore, there are two requirements to be fulfilled to sat that a test paper has content validity:

1. 
   There must be a sample of questions representing all areas of the syllabus.
   
2. 
   The representative sample of questions must be in appropriate proportion.
   

There is one more point for further discussion. Suppose that grammar component included three lessons in the following manner in this syllabus:

Component	Tenses	Conditionals	Prepositions
No. of teaching hours/Lessons	4	4	2
No. of questions	5	2	3

Once again, the above selection of questions for grammar part reflects lack of content validity. If only two grammar questions are to be given, the two questions may have ten sentences for a completion task where each of the grammar components is assessed. These ten sentences may have the following pattern of distribution:

Component	Tenses	Conditionals	Prepositions
No. of teaching hours/Lessons	4	4	2
No. of questions	4	4	2

Content validity, therefore, means that the test paper should have a representative sample of language items in appropriate proportion. To ensure content validity, it is essential that tester prepares a test specification based on the syllabus. The specification should include details of the number of question to be included, text types to be used, testing techniques and sub-skills to be tested according to the proportionate value in the syllabus. The test paper can be constructed based on this test specification. An outsider can compare the test paper with the test specification and then the test specification with the syllabus to determine the content validity of the test paper.
Content validity is important for several reasons:

1. 
   The greater the content validity the more accurate the measurement will be. What does it mean that a candidate has received eighty five (85) marks in a final achievement test mean if we have not measured his speech performances at all, when the syllabus includes speech as a main component? To make our measurement meaningful, the story of ‘representative sample in appropriate proportion’ is vey essential.
   
2. 
   If content validity is not given due consideration, it is likely that testers prepare test items which are easy to prepare. For instance, it may be easy to set few grammar questions rather than administering a speech test.
   
3. 
   More importantly, content validity will ensure beneficial backwash effect. Suppose that a test paper ignores the testing of oral performances. The teachers will assume that they can simply ignore this skill in classroom teaching and the time meant for speech practice can be used for grammar items which are more likely to be tested. In this way teachers can help learners to achieve better examination results! But better results do not assure of students improvement in language proficiency – especially of the oral proficiency. On the other hand, if the test paper includes ‘a representative sample in appropriate proportion’ teachers have no option for ignoring any part of the syllabus. Such a test paper will produce beneficial backwash effect
   

2.