The past eight years have seen an unprecedented level of education policy activity focused on issues of teacher quality. Policies have been developed at federal, state, and institutional levels, and include increased institutional reporting of teacher candidates' test scores, the mandate for Highly Qualified Teachers (HQT) in the No Child Left Behind Act, more stringent requirements for entry into and accreditation of teacher education programs, and the rapid expansion of alternate pathways into teaching. To determine whether these policies were accompanied by changes in the academic quality of prospective teachers, this study focuses on "Praxis" candidates from the years 2002 through 2005, and compares this cohort with an earlier cohort of prospective teachers (1994 to 1997) included in an earlier Educational Testing Service (ETS) study. In order to make appropriate comparisons, the study included 20 states and the District of Columbia, all of which used "Praxis[TM]" assessments for teacher licensure testing for both cohort periods. The primary data reported are "Praxis II[R]" passing rates, SAT[R] scores, and undergraduate grade point averages (GPA) for candidates with different demographic, teacher preparation, and teacher experience backgrounds. The study's findings suggest that recent policy initiatives have helped improve the quality of the teacher pool as measured by SAT[R] scores and college grades. In most cases, however, it is difficult to assign particular changes to specific policies because the policies have been implemented at so many points in the system. The observed changes are large for the world of education policy and have occurred over a relatively brief time span. This confluence of policy changes at the institutional, state, and federal levels is associated with positive changes in the profile of prospective teachers. (Contains 6 tables, 22 figures, and 41 footnotes.)