This research examines national data on the status of the minority teacher shortage--the low proportion of minority teachers in comparison to the increasing numbers of students of color in schools. The authors show that efforts over recent decades to recruit more minority teachers, and place them in disadvantaged schools, have been very…

Across the educational systems of the world, few issues receive more attention than the problem of ensuring that elementary- and secondary-school classrooms are staffed with adequately qualified teachers. Even in nations where students routinely score high on international exams, the issue of teacher quality is the subject of concern. It is widely…

Contemporary educational thought holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate student achievement is the inability of schools to staff classrooms with qualified teachers. The primary sources of the problem of underqualified teachers are, most assume, deficits in the quantity of prospective teachers recruited and in the quality of preparation…