Influencing the Status of Teaching in Central Asia Christine Harris-Van Keuren An aggressive research project lead by Barber and Mourshed (2007) investigated the world’s top performing school systems. The objective was to uncover key differentiation points which contribute to the success of these school systems on standardized testing. The authors found that top performing countries were able to attract and retain high quality individuals into the teaching profession. To achieve this, entry into pedagogical programs is tightly controlled, rigorous pre-service training is established, and starting salaries are competitive with the private sector. Teachers are perceived as professional and of high status in their respective educational systems. These top performing school systems recognize that an ineffective teacher can have negative repercussions in an educational system for up to forty years (Barber and Mourshed, 2007). If this report is correct, then Central Asian countries have a serious problem. Educational systems in this region suffer from an absence of teacher candidate selectivity, poor pre-service training, and a problematic pay structure with low salary levels. Many candidates select teaching not because it’s their “passion” or their “calling” but simply because they lack other occupational alternatives. In Central Asia, teacher status is low and as a result, the region suffers from a critical teachers’ shortage. Many of these countries experience a cyclical problem of low teacher status attracting individuals with fewer educational and occupational choices, which further decreases the status of the profession. This paper address the questions, “How is teacher ‘status’ defined?” and “If policymakers sought to break this cycle and increase teacher status as a strategy to alleviate shortages, is there historical evidence that some