In recent decades, federal, state, and local policies have demonstrated renewed efforts to address the concerns of both teacher quality and quantity, resulting in initiatives to attract, reward, and retain qualified people in the teacher profession. Initiatives to address the problems of teacher quality and quantity often take the form of recruitment and retention efforts designed to both attract teachers and support them in ways that will increase the likelihood that they remain in their school and/or district. The School District of Philadelphia is an example of a district making strides towards improving their recruitment and retention strategies. To begin to understand the impacts or effects of these efforts to address teacher quality and quantity, it is important to account for the influence that teacher preparation, teacher hiring, school placement, and targeted supports may have on the experiences of first-year teachers. This paper utilizes a one-time survey of new teachers to gain insight about the characteristics of teachers recruited to the School District of Philadelphia for the 2004-2005 school year. The data reveals information about teachers' preparation, hiring experiences, knowledge of school assignment, and expectations as they enter the School District of Philadelphia. Analysis of this data has implications for actions that the district may consider taking to ensure that their recruitment strategies are supplemented by their retention initiatives, which take the form of a variety of new teacher support activities and programs. (Contains 4 tables, 8 figures and 4 endnotes.)