Well-prepared teachers of mathematics make a difference. The group of states with the highest average scores on NAEP at grade 8 are well above the national average in proportion of teachers with a major or minor in mathematics. The group of states with the lowest NAEP scores are below or near the average level of preparation of their mathematics teachers. Analyses of teacher preparation by school characteristics show that students in high poverty schools and schools with high minority enrollments have higher proportions of under-prepared teachers than other schools. The questions that were particularly difficult for students required unit conversions, calculations of volume and circumference, and estimation of measurements.
Teacher reports on curriculum content reveal many math topics, but little focus.
The areas of geometry, congruence and similarity, functions, relations and patterns, and equations and formulas account for approximately 67 percent of teaching time in Japanese classrooms. In contrast, grade 8 teachers in the U.S. spread time very thinly among a wide range of topics. The majority of teachers cover 16-18 different topics, with only one topic accounting for more than 8 percent of their teaching time.