Carnegie Corporation of New York-Institute for Advanced Study Statement on Release of The Teacher Education Study in Mathematics

Below are statements from Michele Cahill (Vice President, National Programs, Carnegie Corporation of New York, a funder of the study) and Phillip Griffiths (Professor of Mathematics and Past Director, Institute for Advanced Study) on the release of a Michigan State University study surveying more than 3,300 future teachers in the United States and 23,244 future teachers across 16 countries. Ms. Cahill and Mr. Griffiths are co-chairs of Opportunity Equation, an initiative designed to mobilize for excellence in mathematics and science education so that all students – not just a select few—achieve much higher levels of learning.

Michele Cahill:

“We’re at a pivotal point of both need and opportunity. This study reaffirms what we’ve collectively known for a while—we don’t have enough teachers who are fully prepared to teach math at the levels necessary to ensure excellence and equity for all students, particularly for our students in high-needs schools. And the new Common Core Standards in math align standards with what we know students will need for success in their futures. They challenge us to develop innovative approaches to ensure that teachers are prepared to teach to these necessarily rigorous standards.

“The Carnegie Corporation of New York-Institute for Advance Study Opportunity Equation report found that partnerships at all levels must support the infusion of innovation in designing solutions for teacher talent issues around recruitment, preparation/certification, and support. This includes scaling up effective recruitment and alternate certification programs to find the strongest math teachers, cultivate their skills, sustain their commitment over time, and monitor and manage their performance. But this is only one part of the picture. We also need to look systemically at refining assessments aligned with the higher Common Core Standards in math, designing and deploying accountability systems that reward effective instruction, and developing and sustaining R&D capacity to enable redesigned schools and systems that bring all students to high levels of math achievement.

“This is an opportunity to design new math teaching preparation and certification programs that encourage the entry into teaching of highly-capable individuals with strong math backgrounds. We must ensure that not only teacher candidates, but also all college students are receiving high-quality math instruction. And we need to make sure that these highly-qualified math teachers get into the classrooms of the students who need them the most – the students in our high-needs schools.

Phillip Griffiths:

“Teacher preparation must incorporate into its design higher-quality math instruction to meet the Common Core Standards, and more robust instruction that includes exposing students to engaging, “real world” applications of mathematics.

“This is not just about ‘catching up’ with high-performing countries, it is about raising the levels of our students’ mathematics knowledge by being smart and deliberate about how we’re doing it. Studies such as the TEDS-M give us the data we need to do this.

“We must rethink teacher certification requirements to include multiple ways of demonstrating mathematical knowledge and competency, not merely more math requirements that might drive out talented mid-career candidates.”

April 15, 2010

For More Information Contact: Sara Appleyard, (212)260-3401, sara.appleyard@widmeyer.com

About the Carnegie Corporation of New York

Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic foundation created by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to do “real and permanent good in this world.”

About the Institute for Advanced Study

The Institute for Advanced Study is one of the world’s leading centers for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. The Institute exists to encourage and support fundamental research in the sciences and humanities – the original, often speculative, thinking that produces advances in knowledge that change the way we understand the world. Work at the Institute takes place in four Schools: Historical Studies, Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Social Science. It provides for the mentoring of scholars by a permanent Faculty of 29, and it offers all who work there the freedom to undertake research that will make significant contributions in any of the broad range of fields in the sciences and humanities studied at the Institute.

The Institute, founded in 1930, is a private, independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Its more than 5,000 former Members hold positions of intellectual and scientific leadership throughout the academic world. Some 22 Nobel Laureates and 34 out of 48 Fields Medalists, as well as many winners of the Wolf or MacArthur prizes, have been affiliated with the Institute.