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Certification and Licensure
A highly qualified teacher, as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act, must hold a bachelor's degree, be fully licensed or certified by the state, and demonstrate competency for each academic subject taught. However, there are questions regarding whether these requirements guarantee a teacher's success in the classroom:
- Are the states' certification and licensing processes predictors of student achievement and other related outcomes (e.g., number of discipline referrals, dropout rates, and attendance rates)?
- What do we know about the effectiveness of the states' alternative routes to certification?
- How important are other teacher factors (e.g., general ability, knowledge of how children develop, pedagogical knowledge, demographic similarity to students) to student achievement?
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