Research was conducted to determine the relationship between selected teacher characteristics of current food service teachers and their effectiveness as teachers. The seven teacher characteristics were age, sex, industrial experience, teacher experience, level of education, teacher perception of concern for students, and occupational specialization. Teacher effectiveness was measured by an affective criterion (Teacher's Estimate of Teacher Concern) and a cognitive criterion (Pennsylvania Competency Examination for Quantity Foods). The sample included 48 teachers from 31 vocational schools in eastern Pennsylvania and 472 students who responded to the Students' Estimate of Teacher Concern (SETC), Form B. During the spring of 1976, the Pennsylvania Competency Examination of Quantity Foods was administered to 116 advanced food service students in 17 of the original 31 schools. The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings included the following: Older teachers have more industrial experience and teaching experience than younger teachers. Those with industrial experience have less education than those without. Women have less industrial experience than men but more education and occupational specialization than men. Occupational specialization yielded a significant relationship with achievement and industrial experience a negative relationship to achievement. Correlations between SETC and the seven independent variables were low and not significant. Those between the competency exam and the independent variables produced a significant relationship between occupational specialization and achievement. Also the SETC and the Competency Exam (both used as measures of teacher effectiveness) lacked a significant relationship with each other. (Author/HD)