This article examines the use of two readily available measures of incoming teacher qualification—amount of teacher education coursework and the highly qualified teaching credential as methods for predicting the teaching confidence and retention of incoming and novice teachers in high poverty/high minority urban schools.tthe author concludes that there is clearly a problem regarding the measurement of quality of preparation for teachers entering high poverty/high minority urban schools that desperately need a quality teaching force. To retain teachers, it is important that high poverty/high minority schools hire teachers who can articulate a belief in the success of the students in that school.