Key points:
- Better math teacher prep will strengthen aspiring teachers and lead to greater math achievement for students
- A look at one school’s innovative approach to PD
- Ethical PD: Doing right by the teachers who do right by the world
- For more news on teacher prep, visit eSN’s Educational Leadership hub
A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) finds that only one in eight elementary teacher preparation programs nationwide devote enough time to teaching fundamental math content topics (numbers & operations, algebraic thinking, geometry & measurement, and data analysis & probability).
Too many students are falling behind in their math skills, limiting their academic success and future economic opportunities. Recent math scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that a quarter of fourth graders lack even basic math skills. This is particularly troubling given that students with higher math scores tend to earn higher incomes as adults. In fact, research shows that math scores predict future earnings better than reading scores. Early math skills also predict student success in other subjects like reading and science.
Better math teacher prep will strengthen aspiring teachers and lead to greater math achievement for students. To develop great math teachers, teacher prep programs must increase the time they spend on fundamental math concepts.
Math experts recommend programs devote a minimum of 150 instructional hours (i.e., 10 course credits) to elementary mathematics: 105 hours on mathematics content and 45 hours on how to teach math (i.e., pedagogy). However, NCTQ’s latest Teacher Prep Review: Solving For Math Success report finds that most undergraduate and graduate elementary teacher prep programs fall short of that standard.
Findings for undergraduate prep programs:
- The average undergraduate program dedicates 85 hours of instructional time to foundational math content knowledge–20 instructional hours short of the recommended minimum.
- Just 16 percent of 838 undergraduate programs across the country earned an A or A+ for meeting the minimum recommendations.
- Twenty-two percent of undergraduate programs earned an F for their math teacher preparation.
Graduate prep programs, which prepare teachers for the same job, fare far worse:
- The average graduate program dedicates 14 hours of instructional time–less than one course credit–to foundational math content knowledge.
- Only 5 percent of graduate programs meet or approach the recommended 150 instructional hours for math overall.
- More than 80 percent of graduate programs earn an F grade for their math preparation.
“Teachers need to know how to do more than just follow the steps in math to get the right answer. They need to know why those steps work,” says NCTQ President Heather Peske. “It’s like the difference between a basketball player and a coach. The player can learn their role and follow directions, but the coach needs to understand the bigger picture–the why behind every move.”
The report also highlights examples of teacher prep programs making positive changes. Regent University, for instance, improved from a D grade to an A+ by introducing two new mathematics courses designed to fill gaps in math content preparation. Similarly, the University of Montana consistently excels–earning A+ grades for its graduate and undergraduate programs–by emphasizing rigorous math content courses as prerequisites to pedagogical training.
This press release originally appeared online.
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