Complete Coverage

City Schools Hire Teachers With Stronger Credentials

Studies find recruits have higher scores, degrees from choosier colleges.

Some of the nation’s largest school districts have begun to see upticks in the academic qualifications of teachers they bring on board—only to face what may be a tougher challenge in keeping them, recent research on teacher-hiring patterns suggests.

Studies involving Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, for instance, all provide evidence that teachers hired by those districts most recently have stronger academic backgrounds on average than teachers hired in the 1990s.

Under pressure from the federal No Child Left Behind Act’s teacher-quality provisions and with the focus of school improvement more than ever on the people in the classroom, many urban districts have stepped up their recruitment efforts...