Remember how our Department of Education decided to give an easier test to folks who want to qualify to teach math in grades 7–12? The new Intermediate Math Endorsement says teachers who pass the Middle School Math Praxis test can teach the basic high school requirements of Algebra I, Geometry, and Algebra II but not Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and Calculus.
Dr. Sharon Vestal teaches math education at South Dakota State University. She asked prospective teachers in her Geometry for Teachers course to compare the Middle School Math Praxis Test with the Common Core standards for high school geometry. Vestal’s students doubt the new endorsement signals real readiness to teach geometry. One criticism frequently voiced by these future teachers is a lack of attention to the cornerstone of geometry classes, proofs:
I don’t think that passing a test with those things would leave you qualified. You would be missing one of the biggest parts of geometry… proofs! I feel that you need to know why you are doing any of those things and why they are true. This might be the single most important part….
…Verifying and proving things is a large part of the common core standards and there was no evidence of that kind of assessment on the exam [student comments, in Sharon Vestal, “Is This a Case of Double Standards?” Teaching and Inspiring Math Educators, 2015.09.08].
Vestal finds the new Intermediate Math Endorsement an “insult” to the students in her classroom who are working well beyond its middling requirements:
These students are enrolled in a Mathematics with Teaching Specialization program. They all agree that passing a test doesn’t make one qualified to be a teacher and that passing the Middle School Math Praxis is not sufficient to teach high school geometry. To me, this Intermediate Math Endorsement is an insult to these students who are going to complete a rigorous mathematics degree. I am very impressed with these students so far this semester and am confident that they are going to be great teachers [Vestal, 2015.09.08].
I’m open to the argument that not every high school math teacher needs to know calculus. But every high school geometry teacher needs to know geometry… and the Common Core standards agree that that means knowing proofs inside and out. The Intermediate Math Endorsement doesn’t appear to ensure that necessary knowledge.
A Euclidean straight line has no width, but any real drawn line will. As will the line to mediocrity that dumbing down teaching and having the lowest teacher pay in USA will bring to a formerly excellent learning environment ….. South Dakota.