From Interest to Entry: The Teacher Pipeline From College Application to Initial Employment

Abstract

Strengthening teacher supply is a key policy objective for K–12 public education, but understanding of the early teacher pipeline remains limited. In this descriptive analysis, we leverage the universe of applications to a large public university in Texas from 2009 to 2020 to examine the pipeline into teacher education and employment as a K–12 public school teacher. A unique feature of Texas’s centralized higher education application is that it solicits potential interest in teacher certification. We document sharply declining interest in teaching over the period. Further, we show that students of color, men, and students with higher SAT scores are substantially underrepresented in teacher education. Particularly for race/ethnicity, these disparities are only partially explained by differences in interest at application.