Teacher Recruitment in Sweden Over the Last Two Decades: How Has Entering Teachers’ GPA Changed Over Time?

Abstract The question about what constitutes teaching quality is widely discussed in many countries and Sweden is no exception. Teaching quality has been linked to individual characteristics assumed to be related to student learning that are not necessarily associated with specialised training for the craft of teaching. One of these are the standards for entry to the profession. This chapter highlights teachers’ academic performances. More specifically, it explores newly recruited teachers’ grade point average over a period of over 20 years. The findings are based on register data and are analysed with descriptive statistics. The findings demonstrate how newly recruited teachers’ school grade point average (GPA) has decreased the past decades but also that some quite striking differences exists depending on teachers’ certification status. Implications of the results are discussed in relation to the possible effects on student achievement.