The teaching performance test is a recently developed assessment technique designed to sharpen our teacher competence evaluation procedures. It assesses a teacher's ability to promote learner mastery of prespecified instructional objectives during a relatively short lesson designed by the teacher. The principal contributions of this paper are the suggestions of what key facets (i.e., task dimensions and administrative factors) are crucial in the effective use of teaching performance tests. The critical dimensions involved in teaching performance tests fall into two groups-those associated with the nature of the instructional objective and those concerned with the administration of the test. (Author)