Commercial teacher selection instruments: The validity of selecting teachers through Beliefs, Attitudes, and values

One influential hypothesis for what makes teachers effective contends that the best teachers share a particular set of values about education, such as commitment, caring, or persistence. To translate affective beliefs, attitudes, and values into practicable teacher selection, many schools have turned to commercial teacher hiring instruments. This article synthesizes 24 studies of the most prominent teacher selection instrument, Gallup's Teacher Perceiver Interview (TPI). Overall, we find a modest relationship (r=.28) between the TPI and some measure of teaching quality. The article explores complications that arise for schools from using beliefs, attitudes, and values to select among teacher candidates and discusses their implications for the educational-values hypothesis.