A fair assessment measures the outcome you intended, not something incidental. Align each question or task to an objective; if an item does not measure a stated outcome, reconsider it. Watch for barriers unrelated to what you are testing, such as needlessly complex wording or a format that trips up some students without measuring the skill.

Validity is simply whether the assessment measures what you think it does. A clear, aligned assessment that students can navigate gives you trustworthy evidence of learning. An unclear or misaligned one gives you noise, and grades built on noise are unfair to everyone.