The purpose of this paper, which is drawn from a larger analytic history of the National Teacher Evaluation (NTE) program, is to investigate issues of validity within the context of the program's 50-year history. Three major findings emerge from historical considerations relating to: (1) the continuity of test content and justification over the 50-year period of the program's existence; (2) the primacy of reliance upon logical or content validity; and (3) the paradoxical relationship of the tests to teacher education curricula. First, since their inception the examinations have measured three categories of teacher knowledge--basic intellectual and communicative skills, general cultural and contemporary background, and pedagogical and professional information. When changes did occur, they were undertaken for either financial reasons or as responses to specific criticisms. Second, there has been a strong tendency to justify the exams in terms of their logical or practical validity. Finally, despite the persistent assumption that the tests are needed because graduates of many teacher education programs are inadequately prepared, the source of test content and validity has been and continues to be focused primarily upon the perceived curricula of those programs. (PN)