Teacher Qualifications Literature Data Base
Description
"The studies listed on this site seek evidence that teachers' qualifications (TQ) have some bearing on the quality of their teaching practice (QT).For "qualifications," we include any aspect of teachers' educational background, test scores or credentials. These things are often required by states and they are assumed to provide teachers with professional knowledge, that is, knowledge that will benefit their teaching. We do NOT include studies of teachers' race, gender, or ethnicity, studies of their values, beliefs, attitudes or dispositions, unless these measures are included in studies that also include a knowledge-related qualification. These teacher characteristics are often hypothesized to be relevant to teaching quality but are not officially endorsed qualifications.
For "quality of practice" we include studies that rely on direct observations of practice, principals' or other supervisors' ratings of teachers, or student achievement test scores. We do not include studies that estimate quality of practice through simulations or assessments. All indicators are derived directly from real classrooms and real students.
All studies in this data base were released after 1974. We do not restrict ourselves to peer-reviewed journal articles. We also include books and book chapters, dissertations, reports from independent agencies, conference presentations and on-line reports. However we also provide a few rough indicators of study quality by identifying features that might be deemed questionable by other researchers."