The need to recruit minority candidates to teaching is too often overlooked amidst growing concern over a looming shortage of qualified teachers for U.S. public schools. This article offers evidence for making teacher diversity a central component of teacher quality and examines elements of teacher quality agenda that discount or limit diversity. It also outlines what National Education Association, largest teacher association in United States, is doing to promote teacher diversity and provides recommendations for programs and polices to recruit a more qualified and diverse teaching force. For well over a decade, several prominent educators have warned of teacher diversity/ teacher quality challenge facing public in United States (Dilworth, 1990, 1992; Garibaldi, 1989; Holmes, 1988; Irvine, 1988; Witty, 1982). Finally, nation is starting to pay attention. Today, with a few exceptions (Feistritzer, 1998), teacher educators, school personnel, administrators, and policymakers acknowledge both pending teacher shortage and current minority teacher recruitment crisis. Too often, however, response to these issues is inadequate, ineffective, or even counterproductive. Those who are most attentive to teacher shortage agenda continue to push alternative pathways that often open floodgates for underqualified, unprepared individuals to enter teaching. Those who attend to teacher quality agenda continue to push for high standards, which is often interpreted to mean support for high-stakes testing and artificial barriers that block access to qualified minority candidates. The true challenge for 21st century and beyond is to develop a teacher recruitment and retention agenda that recognizes absolute inseparability of quality and diversity. This article attempts to define terms of that challenge and provide recommendations for recruiting a qualified and diverse teacher workforce. AMERICA's DEMOGRAPHIC CHALLENGE The face of nation is changing. Though African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native Americans currently represent only 25% of U.S. population, they were responsible for 70% of nation's population growth from 1980 to 1990-a trend that is projected to continue well into 21st century (Melting Pot, 1996). Nowhere is this population shift more evident than in U.S. public schools. Each year for past decade, public school student population has grown and become more diverse (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 1998). About one-third of public school students are members of racial/ethnic minority groups; by year 2035, that number will climb to over 50% (LJ.S. Department of Commerce, 1996). Instead of embracing this diversity, however, public seem headed in opposite direction. According to a recent report published by Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, 1990s was the decade of resegregation in our schools (Orfield & Yun, 1999, p. 2). Apparently, school districts in South and major cities throughout nation have been abandoning their desegregation efforts while growing numbers of impoverished African American and Hispanic American students attended segregated, under-resourced schools. Against this backdrop looms a growing challenge, bordering on crisis proportions, surrounding quality, diversity, and availability of U.S. teacher workforce. Are there enough teachers in pipeline to fill nation's classrooms? At least 2.2 million teachers need to be hired over next 10 years (NCES, 1997b). Will these teachers have skill and ability to meet academic challenges of next century? Over 27% of newly hired teachers have a temporary license, an emergency license, or no license at all (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996). Will these teachers reflect changing demographic population-or should they? Only 13. …