Improving teacher preparation and selection: lessons from the Pennsylvaniaexperience

This paper examines Pennsylvania's teacher preparation and selection proces ses over the last decade. Teacher test scores are examined across colleges of education, and extreme differences in teacher test scores are found. Als o, extreme variations are evident among districts' employed teachers. A uni que survey of district employment practices reveals that, on average, 40% o f a district's teachers previously attended there as students. An explorato ry econometric model indicates that the higher the unemployment rate in a d istrict, the more likely it will hire its former students to teach, and tha t the greater. the fraction of former students now in the district's teache r force, the lower is student achievement. The paper concludes with a discu ssion of conventional and unconventional strategies to improve the quality of teachers actually hired by school boards, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.