In certain skills and attitudes, expected competencies of new teachers may be unreasonable in relation to both their college preparation and in terms of what they confront in their first classrooms as professionals. This study was undertaken, in part, to assess how first-year teachers may fare in relation to proposed competency testing models.…

The Connecticut Teacher Assessment Center Project has, since 1986, been developing a semistructured interview in the area of mathematics to evaluate beginning teacher competence. The strategy for validation of the project's performance tests, Connecticut's reform initiatives, and implications of systematic validity for traditional psychometric…