Comment by thwayunion | Hacker News Reader

Comment by thwayunion | Hacker News Reader

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In CA, primary school teachers cover most subjects.

But even secondary English teachers should be able to pass a mathematics proficiency exam.

Would we want barely literate folks teaching Mathematics? No, because mathematics does not exist in isolation. Someone who can't read and write reasonably well very likely can't teach mathematics in a contextually useful way. If someone cannot pass an English/French exam, I'm not so sure that they are literate enough to teach.

Similarly, a basic competency in number sense and Mathematical constructions is necessary to teach any subject, including English. If someone cannot pass a Mathematics exam, I'm not so sure that they are numerate enough to manage a grade book and interpret basic statistics about their students' progression. Not to mention teaching students how to write expository texts on technical subjects.

Remember: these exams are relatively low bars. We're not testing teachers on university mathematics; we're largely testing them on material they should have learned in order to graduate from high school in the first place. See https://mathproficiencytest.ca/#/en/applicant/learn/about:wh...

I'm all for basic competency in math. But looking at the specific court ruling (https://www.otffeo.on.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/...), I don't think this standardized test is necessarily the best way to get there.

The EQAO (in charge of creating the test) found through a literature review that "the fundamental goal of teacher licensure tests – to improve student learning – is often not met." Adding math courses to the B.Ed would be a much better way of improving teachers' math proficiency. It seems strange to have an extra standardized test when you have a specific program designed to graduate teachers.

> The EQAO (in charge of creating the test) found through a literature review that "the fundamental goal of teacher licensure tests – to improve student learning – is often not met."

This is inaccurate. It’s never met. There are no known examples of teacher education improving their effectiveness. Education degrees have no effect on how god teachers are at their job.

> It's easier to pick a good teacher than to train one: Familiar and new results on the correlates of teacher effectiveness

> Neither holding a college major in education nor acquiring a master's degree is correlated with elementary and middle school teaching effectiveness, regardless of the university at which the degree was earned. Teachers generally do become more effective with a few years of teaching experience, but we also find evidence that teachers may become less effective with experience, particularly later in their careers.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02727...

Agreed. I think it's possible that this specific requirement was unhelpful and also that mathematics requirements are necessary. In fact, the author's complaints about status quo of mathematics education nearly entail exactly that conclusion.

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