Math Teachers Struggling to Keep Up
Reader Comments
Math
While there are many teachers notqualified to teach math, much of the blame also lies with the parents of those failing students. Many never attend parent conferences, many don't even know what grades their kids get in math or any classes. It may sound strange, but its very true. I've been teaching for almost 19 years, and out of 130 students,I get around 12 parents show up for parent conference, or back to school nights. Where is their interests in their kids?
Show me parents that are involved, and I'll show you kids who do much better in school.
it's pathetic...
My wife and I are both going to college to be math teachers. I remember being in high school and seeing coaches with no math degrees teach math classes. I ended up tutoring many of them because they said the teachers got frustrated and made them feel stupid when the students asked questions. I don’t understand why anyone would want to take a job like that if they don’t love teaching and have passions for both teaching, and helping others. I think that making sure every teacher is certified is a good way to weed out the people who aren’t good teachers. If they’re passionate about their jobs.. they can get a certified degree just as I’m doing.
I am a professional with an engineering degree and a MBA that tried teaching Math for 3 years -- Middle School and High School. I just went back to my previous career because of two reasons --
1) Kids today want things quickly and therefore, in math, don't like problems that they have to "think" to solve. A lot of the kids in Middle School don't even know their Multiplication Tables which are a foundation of doing well in Algebra.
2) Inequities in Salaries. In NC, all teachers are paid on the same scale. So -- a math teacher who has multiple lesson plans, lots of things to grade gets paid the same as a PE teacher who gets to play sports all day. With 20 years of work experience in Engineering (Math..) I get paid the same thing as a 3 year PE teacher. I never expected to get paid the same as my previous position but I expected equity with my experience and amount of work required.
math teachers
I too have seen the need for education for teachers. I am a math coach in WV. I also provide professional development to teachers across our state. I asked over 400 elementary to high school teachers to write a story problem for this computation: 1 and 3/4 divided by 1/2. Only 3 teachers wrote a correct story. I spent 2 years at a local university as a teaching fellow. I could not get a full time job there because I did not have a PhD. Doctorate holders do not get how to teach math for understanding. They have pre-service teachers prove things like the cartesian product but not why adding a zero to multiply by ten makes sense. Until good teachers of mathematics can work in math education departments our system will not change and we will continue to produce teachers that can not teach math for understanding. We have textbooks like Everyday Math and Investigations that try to help but techers do not understand the teacher background information.
You do need a math teacher
On one had I agree with all of the comments about quality math teachers, but as one I also can not ignore the fault with this study. As I tell my statistics students, Correlation does not show causation. Simple example, hot chocolate sales and mitten sales both rise at the same time, there is strong correlation but it does not mean that one causes the other, they are both caused by cold weather.
Here you have potentially economically and educationally disadvantaged young people who start out behind and then you are surprised that top teachers do not want to teach there. Schools with lower socioeconomic levels tend to have more discipline problems and are a harder work environment.
Are unqualified teachers a problem, YES, does this observational study prove it NO. There are lurking variables that are a bigger issue, and potentially the cause of both.
Response to Brandy
I think that paying students for grades is a great idea for these low-income students. Many parents give their children allowances for good grades or other things they desire like cars and electronics.I am not understanding how "Cash for Grades" is different. The concept is still the same however, for these children receiving the money, their parents can't afford to reward them.
Paying for College...
Want a real reason...look at parents who refuse to be a parent. They want the schools & teachers to raise their kids for them. Who would want to step foot in a clssroom anymore? You risk greater chance of violence you don't get paid for advancing your education (many employers reward education & pay for it check out hospitals for nursing students.) Why should teachers have to take the abuse when they can major in math and work in engineering...be safer and make 2-5 times more? There is no reward in educating our youth. People want hand-outs and freebies and our country is wasting away because of it...this is another symptom of a greater problem with our country. People won't hold themselves or their children accountable, blame someone else, this time a teacher.
Paying for College...
Want a real reason...look at parents who refuse to be a parent. They want the schools & teachers to raise their kids for them. Who would want to step foot in a clssroom anymore? You risk greater chance of violence you don't get paid for advancing your education (many employers reward education & pay for it check out hospitals for nursing students.) Why should teachers have to take the abuse when they can major in math and work in engineering...be safer and make 2-5 times more? There is no reward in educating our youth. People want hand-outs and freebies and our country is wasting away because of it...this is another symptom of a greater problem with our country. People won't hold themselves or their children accountable, blame someone else, this time a teacher.
Quality Math Teachers
If you are interested in teaching Math, please give our district consideration. We are currently accepting applications online at www.teachmemphis.org
Where's the Connection
Talk, Preach, Scream about getting good grades in math and where does it leads one? Jobs in this country are decreasing tremendously in field where one would need a high aptitude in math and kids aren't stupid. They see parents getting laid off and fired from jobs that are math related. They then think to themselves why learn math. Architechts aren't even getting work right now.
