Abstract

Teacher policies in Chile often deem content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as essential dimensions of teaching quality. The measurement of CK and PCK started in 2002, with two voluntary teacher evaluation programs. CK and PCK gained greater relevance with the National System for the Recognition and Promotion of Teachers’ Professional Development (Teacher Career System, TCS) in 2016. TCS is a mandatory nation-wide policy defining the career paths of educators serving in publicly funded schools. Shortly after the first evaluation process, this chapter attempts to examine critical aspects related to the validity of the CK-PCK test results. Validity is a requirement to justify the high-stakes nature of the test. Along with a description of the policy context and measurement process, the chapter proposes seven assumptions underlying the appropriate use of the test results for the decisions the teacher evaluation program seeks to inform. The chapter discusses how reasonable five out of the seven assumptions are and offers a formative judgment of the validity of the CK-PCK test results. Finally, the chapter offers guidelines for a summative validation agenda discussing various ways of improvement of the mandatory measurement of CK and PCK in Chile.