Teacher quality is an urgent issue everywhere, and nowhere more than middle schools.
Middle school students in Kentucky and the United States consistently score below elementary and high school students on state and national tests. Many experts believe part of the problem comes from the fact that many middle school teachers are trained and certified as generalists, rather than specialists in the subjects they teach. Two Kentucky senators want to start to address that problem very specifically, by targeting money for a center that would help middle school math teachers learn more math. The Center for Middle School Mathematics Achievement would help teachers pay for university classes in math, as well as become a research center for the best professional development in math teaching. The first was elementary reading, the second, middle school math and the third, schoolwide discipline.