Mathematics Teacher and Curriculum Quality, 2005 and 2016

Efforts to improve teachers’ knowledge and to change the nature of curriculum materials have dominated mathematics reforms since the late 1990s. In this article, we compared middle school teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) and curriculum use between 2005 and 2016 to assess progress toward these key goals. We found teachers’ MKT increased an amount equal to the average teacher in the 2005 sample improving five percentile points. However, No Child Left Behind’s attempts to encourage mathematics degrees in this population do not explain this increase, as teachers were less likely in 2016 than in 2005 to possess such a degree. Instead, our data are consistent with schools hiring more knowledgeable individuals during the Great Recession. Between surveys, the strength of the association between teacher MKT and student demographic characteristics decreased, although equity gaps still persist. Finally, our data suggest a modest movement toward standards-based curriculum materials over this period.

自20世纪90年代末起，提升教师专业知识水平与革新课程材料性质的相关工作，始终是数学教育改革的核心内容。本文通过对比2005年与2016年的中学教师教学用数学知识（mathematical knowledge for teaching, MKT）及课程使用情况，评估了上述核心改革目标的推进进展。研究发现，教师的MKT水平提升幅度相当于2005年样本中平均教师提升5个百分位的水平。然而，《不让一个孩子掉队法案》（No Child Left Behind）试图推动该群体教师获取数学相关学位，但这一举措并不能解释此次MKT水平的提升——2016年持有数学学位的教师占比反而低于2005年。与之相反，本研究数据与“大衰退（Great Recession）期间学校招聘了更多具备专业素养的教师”这一情形相符。在两次调研间隔期内，教师MKT与学生人口统计学特征之间的关联强度有所减弱，但教育公平差距仍持续存在。最后，本研究数据表明，在此期间，教育领域在采用基于标准的课程材料方面呈现出小幅进展。