Teacher selection is a perpetual administrative task. Vacancies occur every year because of resignations, retirements, transfers, and new positions (Casttetter, 1986). Selection decisions relative to these vacancies represent an investment in the future and have a profound implication for the operation of local school districts.
Research addressing teacher selection indicates that this administrative task is at least a two-stage process (Young & McMurray, 1986), and each stage serves as a hurdle that must be accomplished successfully for further employment consideration (Young & Ryerson, 1986). The first stage consists of a paper evaluation based on the credentials submitted by candidates, while the second stage consists of an interview evaluation based on the performance of candidates within an interview. If candidates fail to succeed at either stage of the selection process, then their employment possibility is, for all practical purposes, nil.
Because success at the credential evaluation stage of the teacher selection process is paramount for further employment consideration, researchers have focused on the screening evaluations made by public school administrators. Results from these research efforts indicate that screening evaluations made by public school administrators are influenced systematically by certain factors. One factor that has consistently emerged in the published literature as influencing the evaluation of applicants at the screening stage of the selection process is chronological age of teacher candidates.
This finding pertaining to chronological age of teacher candidates has a potential legal implication if chronological age is not related to the actual job performance of teachers at the local school district level. Older individuals between 40 and 70 years of age are provided protection from discrimination on the basis of their age unless age can be shown to be a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). To determine the status of age as a BFOQ for teaching is the thrust of this article. More