ABSTRACT
Recent political imperatives have pushed the issue of teacher quality to the top of the reform agenda in U.S. education (e.g., Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2001; Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002). Although the recent attention on teacher quality may give us the illusion that it is a new topic, questions about the preparation, recruitment, and retention of good teachers have been an ongoing concern (Urban, 1990). Nor is the topic limited to interest in the United States. Teacher quality has been and remains an international issue (Hopkins & Stern, 1996).
