| Selecting and training potentially effective teachers and retaining those teachers in their work present immense challenges to the teaching profession. This paper examines the relationship between new teachers' perceptions of career preparedness and their career intentions, accounting for differences in teachers' gender, age, school characteristics, student characteristics, and teacher preparation pathway. This study differs from previous work by employing a nationally representative sample and analyzing three alternative preparation routes---the Teach for America (TFA) program, the New Teacher Project's (NTP) various teacher programs, and the Troops-to-Teachers (TTT) program. Findings suggest that teachers who report feeling better prepared are more likely to report plans to stay in teaching beyond five years, and those trained by traditional certification programs are more likely to stay in teaching than those certified through alternative programs. Knowing that teachers who feel more prepared are more likely to plan on making teaching a career should guide policy-makers in designing teacher-training programs; fewer vacancies may translate to more competition for open positions, which allow hiring decisions to focus on the most potentially successful applicants. Policy implications include greater scrutiny of teacher education programs, particularly attending to the characteristics of those programs that produce teachers who feel well prepared. |
