Teacher Certification Reconsidered: Stumbling for Quality

State requirements that public school teachers complete teacher certification is neither efficient nor effective in ensuring a competent teaching force, concludes this report from the Abell Foundation.  The authors review every published study or paper and many unpublished dissertations cited by prominent national advocates of teacher certification. They conclude the academic research attempting to link teacher certification with student achievement is astonishingly deficient: it is not statistically valid, not peer-reviewed, is based on subjective measures such as interviews with teachers about their own quality, and cites and is cited selectively. Scientifically valid research shows that teacher certification does not improve teacher quality. The teacher attribute found consistently most related to raising student achievement is verbal ability.