The effect of certification status on the performance of mathematics teachers and their students was studied in a pilot study in Mississippi. Four routes of entry into teaching were compared: (1) college of education; (2) college of arts and sciences; (3) adding an endorsement to certification; and (4) emergency certification. Participants were 52 of 123 first and second year mathematics teachers and 1,469 of the 5,602 students enrolled in their classes. Outcome variables were: (1) teacher performance; (2) student performance; (3) student attitude; (4) student perception of teacher effectiveness; and (5) teachers' command of mathematics content. No specific line of entry stood out as clearly superior. Graduates of colleges of arts and sciences seemed to possess somewhat greater content knowledge and to perform almost equally well as did teachers who were graduates of colleges of education. Teachers on emergency certificates showed some tendencies to perform and achieve less effectively, but the differences were not statistically significant. Students perceived graduates of colleges of education as more effective, but no significant differences were found in student achievement. The study was not able to obtain sufficient data on student achievement to draw significant inferences. Results indicate that it would be possible to perform a large, multistate study using the design and methodologies of this pilot study. (SLD)