Who chooses to teach (and why)?

Abstract

Decisions of college students determine who is prepared to teach. Analysis of a college cohort from the early 1980s indicates that graduates completing teacher training have roughly the same distribution of cognitive skills as all entrants into college. Yet, since college graduates are a select group, potential teachers fall low both in the overall graduate distribution and in the distribution by gender and race. Teacher training completion is significantly lowered by state requirements for courses and teacher tests, even though their effect on teacher performance is unclear. Surprisingly, participation in teacher training is not significantly affected by relative teacher earnings.