The Beginning of the Teacher Pipeline: Which College Students Apply to Teacher Education Programs?

We use data from three large public universities in Washington to connect interest in education at the time of university application to eventual applications to teacher education programs (TEPs). Not surprisingly, given the demographics of the teacher workforce, female, White, and students with lower SAT scores are substantially more likely to be interested in education at the time of university application, but only about a third of students who enter college expressing an interest in becoming a teacher apply to a TEP within four years. And even conditional on expressed interest at the point of university application, female, White, and students with lower SAT scores are more likely to apply to TEPs within four years, all else equal.