Study Finds That U.S. Middle School Math Teachers Are Ill-Prepared

January 14, 2008

Compared to their counterparts in five other countries, prospective middle school teachers of mathematics in the United States don't know the subject well enough, according to a recent Michigan State University report called "Mathematics Teaching in the 21st Century."

"Our future teachers are getting weak training mathematically and are just not prepared to teach the demanding mathematics curriculum we need for middle schools if we hope to compete internationally," said William Schmidt, director of the study.

Researchers contacted a sample of universities and teacher-training institutions in the U.S., South Korea, Taiwan, Germany, Bulgaria, and Mexico. About 2,600 future teachers were also surveyed about their mathematics preparation, knowledge, and beliefs.

The researchers found that, compared to teachers elsewhere, U.S. teachers ranked from the middle to the bottom in mathematics knowledge. While U.S. teachers had less than 50% of their training in advanced mathematics, Taiwanese and South Korean future teachers, on the other hand, had at least 80% of their training in advanced math topics.

"What's most disturbing is that one of the areas in which U.S. future teachers tend to do the worst is algebra, and algebra is the heart of middle school math," Schmidt said. "When future teachers in the study were asked about opportunities to learn about the practical aspects of teaching mathematics, again we ranked mediocre at best."

Meanwhile, the "Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics" is in the works. It will look at the preparation of elementary and middle school teachers in 19 countries.

Source: Michigan State University, Dec. 11, 2007.