Do Academically Able Teachers Leave Education? The North Carolina Case.

Abstract

A longitudinal study of North Carolina teachers reveals, among other findings, that the most academically proficient teachers are also the most likely to leave teaching. The result: a steadily deteriorating talent pool. Por teacher educators, school admin istrators, classroom teachers, and education researchers, the relationship be tween measured academic ability and teacher competence seems problematic. For many legislators and others in posi tions to influence policy with regard to teacher education ? and for many critics of teacher education as well ? there is nothing problematic about the relation ship. For policy makers and critics, the relevant facts are these: There is considerable evidence that those who choose to major in teacher edu cation are, as a group, less academically able than most other college majors.1 There is some strong evidence that graduates of teacher education institu tions are not as academically proficient as most other categories of college gradu ates.2 There is now some evidence to sug gest that some teacher education gradu ates do not perform as well on tests of academic achievement as do many of the students they intend to teach.3 These facts, coupled with the account ability movement and reports in the popu lar press of an oversupply of teachers, have encouraged teacher educators, state boards of education, and state legislators to seek ways of upgrading standards for admission to teaching. Most teacher educators are uneasy about using measures of academic ability as predictors of teaching skill. But the fact remains that, in recent years, more than half the states have actively considered screening prospective teachers through the use of tests that ? either implicitly or ex plicitly ? measure academic ability. Researchers may quarrel with the assump tion that measures of academic ability can predict teaching competence. Many policy makers seem willing to bet, however, that people who perform poorly on tests of

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