Some believe the solution to improving instructional quality in K-12 schools lies in identifying and recruiting certain kinds of individuals to the profession (e.g., academically talented, stronger commitment). Others believe that talented or committed individuals cannot become effective or enduring teachers without adequate preparation. Most prior literature examines either recruitment or preparation, rather than weighing evidence for both simultaneously. In addition, most prior research investigates the effects of either approach on only a single outcome, rather than considering multiple outcomes at once. Drawing on pre- and poststudent teaching surveys of more than 1,000 prospective teachers in a large, urban district, this study uses a unique strategy to disentangle the effects of one dimension of preparation (student teaching) from the effects of teacher characteristics on a number of measures for teachers’ self-perceived instructional quality and career plans. The findings indicate that career plans are more often related to teacher characteristics, whereas self-perceived instructional quality is more often related to features of clinical preparation. Implications for recruitment and preparation are discussed.

This mixed-methods study explores the differences in 1st-year urban teachers’ classroom management beliefs and actions. The teachers in this study were in their first year of teaching in an urban context concurrent with their participation in a teacher education program offered at a large public university. Using program-wide surveys of 89 elementary and secondary teachers and qualitative data from five case participants, this study explores teachers’ behavioral, academic, and relational beliefs and how these beliefs shape the actions used in managing their classrooms. Specifically, the participants focused on both student behavior and academics when managing classrooms and did not singularly consider enforcing behavioral systems for obtaining teacher authority. Even with this focus, some of the participants were more relational in their classroom management approach and actively searched for ways to build relationships with students. More relational classroom managers were associated with higher ratings of instructional quality. These findings speak to the need for future large-scale studies on the use of relational classroom management approaches and how those approaches relate to instructional quality.

We draw on rich longitudinal data from one of the largest teacher education programs in Texas to examine the properties of rubric-based observational evaluations of preservice teachers (PSTs) during clinical teaching. Using a variance decomposition approach, we find that little of the variation in observation scores is attributable to actual differences between PSTs. Instead, differences in scores largely reflect differences in the rating standards of field supervisors. Men and PSTs of color receive systematically lower scores, as do PSTs in lower-income and rural placement schools. Finally, higher-scoring PSTs are slightly more likely to become employed as K–12 public school teachers and substantially more likely to be hired at the same school as their clinical teaching placement.

To increase the supply of teachers into underserved schools, teacher educators and policymakers commonly use two approaches: (a) recruit individuals who already report strong preferences to work in underserved schools or (b) design pre-service preparation to increase preferences. Using survey and administrative data on more than 1,000 teachers in a large, urban district, this study provides some of the first district-level evidence for both approaches. Individuals with stronger underserved preferences and teachers of color were more likely to enter underserved schools. Underserved preferences also increased across pre-service student teaching, although increases were mostly unrelated to working with underserved student populations.