Are You Going to be a Teacher? Racialized and Gendered Patterns in Earning a Teaching Credential Among College Graduates

California is facing a heightening teacher shortage that is being felt the most by underserved schools, which have high percentages of students of color, from low socioeconomic status, and/or English Language Learners. Along with a teacher shortage, there is a great racial mismatch between public school students and teachers in California. While prior research has identified how high school academic achievement is important for entering the teaching occupation there is limited research that considers how college academic achievement and overall college experience may mediate or moderate the racial and gendered patterns of obtaining a teaching credential. The research questions for this project are: 1) Are there significant differences by race and gender in the probability of earning a teaching credential? And 2) Are these differences mediated or moderated by college achievement and experiences? This project aims to examine the racialized and gendered patterns of earning a teaching credential among three CalTeach graduating cohorts (2011-13) on three University of California Campuses (n=982). I find that Latinas, Latinos, white men, Asian women, Asian men, and Black women and men are less likely to obtain a teaching credential than white women. I have found that high school achievement (GPA and college entrance exam scores) is not significantly associated with earning a credential, but students’ college GPA at graduation and major are important, especially for Latinas. This suggests that academic outcomes in college are important for who goes into teaching, and especially among Latinas