[RUME] Who should prepare H.S. math teachers?

[O'Malley, Thomas J.]

Does anyone have a reference to a written or oral statement from a group such as NCATE, NCTM, MAA, or CBMS, or a state education department concerning the desirability of having high school math teachers being prepared by mathematics versus education faculty?

This issue has come up at my school with both departments making a good case on paper for their having control of this; each dept. currently has one person with previous HS math teaching experience.  We are a small liberal arts college with a very crowded set of requirements for future math teachers.  For 80+ years we have had a single content-plus-methods course for preparing HS math teachers (there are separate content and methods courses for both elementary and middle school math).  There would be little tolerance for adding to student loads by having separate H.S. content and methods courses.  The math dept teaches this course; its graduates have long been praised as being the best prepared math teachers among those from area colleges.

Dr Thomas O'Malley
Mount Union College
1972 Clark Avenue
Alliance, OH   44641
omalletj at muc.edu
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