Persistent and consistent criticism of our nation's educational system has increased pressure on school districts and teacher education programs to improve the quality of teachers in our public schools. While there is research regarding the characteristics of effective teachers, the difficulty is often in identifying and hiring those teacher…

This correlation research study examined school and teacher characteristics in relationship to the academic performance of students in elementary schools in South Carolina. The school characteristics examined in this study were school size, poverty, minority level, and student teacher ratio. The teacher characteristics examined in this study were…

Teachers and administrators from three rural impoverished school districts in South Carolina, together with consultants and the principal investigator from Clemson University, identified seven requisite qualities of teachers: knowledge, instructional management, classroom management, communications skills, planning ability, professional qualities,…