Study Shows U.S. Teachers Taking Less Math

Aspiring middle school teachers in the United States take fewer math courses and are less knowledgeable in the subject than their counterparts in South Korea, Taiwan, and other countries, reports the Orlando Sentinel.
That gap, combined with curricular differences, could help explain achievement differences between U.S. students and their peers in other industrialized nations, researchers say. The preparation of teachers to impart high-level mathematics skills at the middle and high school levels has been gaining attention as U.S. business leaders and policymakers express concerns about the ability of schools to train a globally competitive workforce.
In a recent study, researchers are offering data on teacher education that examines the extent of the problem. The study of those on the brink of becoming middle school math teachers in the United States and five other countries—Bulgaria, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan—concludes that American teachers are ill prepared for the task.
The teacher-candidates from the United States and Mexico also reported that their undergraduate programs covered less content in advanced math, analysis, and algebra than the other countries’. The American teacher-candidates were also less equipped for the practical aspects of teaching math to middle school students than their counterparts in all but Germany.
William H. Schmidt, the Michigan State University researcher, who conducted the study cautions that his findings are based on a small sample of students in each of the countries, including 2,500 American students in 12 colleges and universities, a group that is not considered representative of the United States’ 1,200 teacher education institutions.
The topic has also been a concern of the federal National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which highlights in its preliminary recommendations, released in November, the need for “systematically improving teacher-preparation programs, as well as professional-development strategies for teachers already in the field.”

— Teachers of Color