The purpose of this monograph is to identify issues that summarize research findings and best practices related to the preparation, recruitment, and retention of quality teachers. It was designed to help policymakers make decisions about how best to prepare teachers, recruit outstanding candidates to teaching, and retain them in the teaching profession. The phrase “quality teachers” has been used in this booklet in place of the more traditional “qualified teachers”. Whereas qualified teachers meet various licensure and certification requirements, quality teachers are those who positively influence student learning. Research in the late 1990s and early 2000s has lent support to the long-held belief that good teachers make a great difference to their students’ academic achievement. When students have as few as two inferior teachers in a row, they almost never catch up academically with their peers. Thus, recruiting academically successful university students into teaching, preparing them well for the challenges of teaching, and retaining them in the profession have all become key goals in helping students achieve high academic standards. Attention has turned from concern over having a sufficient number of teachers to a concern about having a sufficient number of quality teachers. Unlike some of the other monographs in this series where a strong research base exists, research into the preparation, recruitment, and retention of teachers is more limited and sometimes contradictory. In those cases where the research is particularly limited or contradictory, promising practices have been described. In addition, the policy implications of each principle have been discussed.
