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This paper investigates the relationship of teacher quality to student mathematics achievement at the eighth grade level based on the findings from the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP, 2000). It looks for circumstantial evidence of teacher sorting by testing the hypothesis that "better teachers are more likely to teach better scoring students. " The NAEP 8th grade mathematics student scale score is used to identify the characteristics of students associated with student performance in mathematics, and Item Response Theory (IRT) is used to compute a teacher quality scale based on teachers ' responses to NAEP background questions. Factors influencing student achievement, teacher quality, and the relationship between teacher quality and factors influencing student achievement are discussed based on the research findings. (KHR) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. 1cr 0 to The relationship of teacher quality to student mathematics achievement at the 8th-grade