Teachers play a critical role in the preparation of future science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors and professionals. What teachers know about their discipline (i.e., content knowledge) has been identified as an important aspect of instructional effectiveness; however, studies have not yet assessed the content knowledge of aspiring chemistry teachers in the United States. The Praxis Chemistry Subject Assessment is the most nationally representative measure of teacher content knowledge, used in 39 U.S. states in the past decade. In the presented study, we report findings concerning (i) the demographics of Praxis Chemistry Subject Assessment examinees (i.e., prospective chemistry teachers); and (ii) the longitudinal trends in exam performance across several demographic test-taker characteristics. These findings reveal substantial differences in performance and pass rates among examinees of different genders, races/ethnicities, undergraduate majors, undergraduate GPAs, and geographic locales in which they intend to teach. We establish potential leaks in the teacher pipeline that may impact the quality and diversity of chemistry teachers in the United States and suggest ways to improve the chemistry teaching workforce.

Acquiring sufficient content knowledge to lead effectively in the classroom is one of the greatest challenges for beginning teachers. National and state agencies have made significant investments in content-specific induction supports, but these efforts have not been informed by any empirical evidence regarding the topic-level content knowledge of novice teachers. Here we analyze category-level data from the Praxis Chemistry Subject Assessment from May 2006 to June 2016 to determine the areas of general strength and weakness among examinees and explore differences in categorical performance by test-taker demographics. Examinees have generally performed well in the area of “Atomic and Nuclear Structure” and appear to have struggled most in the area of “Solutions and Solubility; Acid–Base Chemistry”. Across categories, estimates of academic preparation (e.g., undergraduate GPA, undergraduate major, and graduate major) have explained a large proportion of variance in examinee performance, although demographic characteristics such as gender and race or ethnicity were more explanatory in certain categories, such as “Atomic and Nuclear Structure”. Chemistry majors were the top performers in almost all categories, and education majors underperformed, often at the level of non-STEM majors, across all topics. The findings from this work should inform both professional development efforts for beginning teachers as well as instructional reform at the undergraduate level.

Does the arrival of culturally diverse workers affect the work style of incumbent workers? We examine how the large influx of Russian hockey players in the National Hockey League after 1989 affected North American–born players. The Soviet style of hockey was largely based on skilled skating, constant movement, circling, and passing. In contrast, the North American play was more individualistic and linear, with higher emphasis on physical strength and aggressive behavior. Using 50 years of data at the player-game level, we show that (i) the number of penalty minutes per game increases steadily from 1970 to 1989, but decreases thereafter; (ii) although Russian players get systematically fewer penalty minutes in and after 1989, the trend reversal is driven by North American–born players; and (iii) the number of penalty minutes per game of North American–born players decreases systematically with the number of Russian players on their team and on the opposing team. Evidence shows that the hockey style brought about by Russian players was adopted and diffused within and across North American teams and players. This paper was accepted by Lamar Pierce, organizations. Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2023.4808 .