Math Teachers Struggling to Keep Up

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Go to any Teacher's chatroom, and you will find posts such as "I have a degree in Curriculum and Instruction" What subject should I teach to get a job? !!!!
Whoa! Hold everything! Correct me if I'm wrong, but one should have a passion for math if one wants to teach it. A degree in math helps.
And that passing Praxis score of 137 in my state of CT is a joke. Many high schoolers can pass it!

Former_Actuarial_Assistant of CT 3:52PM August 29, 2011

The problem is simple, our math teachers are not aspiring mathematicians. I myself hold a bachelors degree in pure mathematics, and have just started my masters in pure mathematics, followed by a Phd. I did not get a degree in "math ed". Whats the difference you may ask??? look at the course list at any university and see for yourself. I'll give you an idea...
[Mathematician is to "math ed" as surgeon is to surgeon tech]
STOP HIRING THESE PEOPLE AND HIRE THE ONES WHO LOVE THIS SACRED FIELD
I just found out, not a minute too soon, that my position as a part time math teacher has been filled. And even though my evaluation was great, the head master dosn't wanna pay for a qualified junior mathematician. I guess 45 year old miss Granis that can't even tell you what uniform convergence is gets to keep her job.

Eddie of CA 6:47PM July 29, 2011

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.

J.Camaren of CA 1:52PM May 18, 2009

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.

Brandon Hancock of UT 9:08PM May 12, 2009

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.

Laura of NC 8:53AM December 13, 2008

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.

Janie Merendino of WV 8:41PM December 08, 2008

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.

Rob Sweeten of FL 7:21AM December 08, 2008

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.

math teachers rule of TX 12:03PM December 06, 2008

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.

Destiny Nursing Student of AZ 4:22PM December 05, 2008

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.

Destiny Nursing Student of 4:22PM December 05, 2008