From the Clinical Experience to the Classroom: Assessing the Predictive Validity of the Massachusetts Candidate Assessment of Performance

We evaluate the predictive validity of the Massachusetts Candidate Assessment of Performance (CAP), a practice-based assessment of teaching skills that is typically taken during a candidate’s student teaching placement and is a requirement for teacher preparation program completion in Massachusetts. We find that candidates’ performance on the CAP predicts their in-service summative performance evaluations in their first 2 years in the teaching workforce and provides a signal of these ratings beyond what is already captured by the state’s traditional licensure tests, but is not predictive of their value added to student test scores. These findings suggest that the CAP captures aspects of candidates’ skills and competencies that are better reflected in their future performance evaluations than by their impacts on student performance.

Working paper 223-1019 was orginally published in October 2019. This is an updated version, published in February 2021.