Currently, no studies have examined how school districts go about hiring new physical educators. Hence, it is unclear whether physical education teacher education (PETE) programs and state and national teaching standards are consistent with the qualities that school districts value in potential job candidates. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze criteria that school districts use when hiring new physical education teachers. School districts, from three suburban counties in the Midwestern U.S., identified individuals involved in the hiring of physical education teachers within the previous five years. These individuals were then invited to participate in the study by completing a survey regarding the hiring process. Seventy-seven individuals returned completed informed consents and surveys, 14 of whom were physical educators, 34 were school principals, and 29 were human resource personnel. The survey was developed using attributes, skills, and knowledge deemed important in related literature, state physical education teaching standards, and feedback from field experts. The survey consisted of 43 Likert scale questions (1-10) examining eight categories: personal attributes, extra-curricular activities, professional preparation, technology skills, interpersonal skills non-student, interpersonal skills student, content knowledge, and teaching skills. Each category was comprised of three to eight questions regarding various attributes reflective of that broad category. Each question asked participants to rate its level of importance in the hiring process. Means were determined for each question, and a summary score was calculated for each category. A Friedman test verified a significant ordering of the eight categories Χ2 (7, N = 76) = 353.38, p<.001. Follow-up testing via Wilcoxon Signed Ranks tests with Bonferroni adjustments determined the order of importance across the categories. Identical analyses were conducted to determine differences between items within each category. For the eight categories, five significantly different groupings were identified. In descending order of importance: interpersonal skills non student (e.g., passion for teaching, interpersonal skills with colleagues, etc.) and interpersonal skills students (e.g., understand and teach students of different races, genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc.); teaching skills (e.g., classroom management, teaching styles, etc.) and personal attributes (e.g., appearance, physically active lifestyle, etc.); content knowledge (e.g., sports, dance, swimming, etc.); professional preparation (e.g., reputable university, grade point average, etc); extra-curricular activities (e.g., high school athlete, willing to coach, etc.) and technology skills (e.g., pedometers, heart rate monitors, etc.). The discussion centers on connecting these findings with hiring practices in other fields and the implications for PETE programs and potential job candidates.