As the nation’s school children struggle to make gains in mathematics — and continue to fall short of pre-pandemic achievement levels — a new Gallup poll reveals a related challenge: schools’ difficulty in hiring well-qualified math teachers.
Nearly half of 1,471 education leaders who responded to the analytics company’s December query reported that the task was “very challenging” and far worse than finding strong English language or social studies applicants.
“The pool of certified math teachers is small, and the demand is high, particularly for candidates who are ready to support student learning from day one,” said Nicole Paxton, assistant principal and athletic director of Mountain Vista Community School in Colorado Springs. “In our district, we’ve experienced a growing number of math openings with only a handful of candidates to consider — many of whom are international applicants requiring sponsorship or visas.”
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Another new study lends insight into a possible reason why: Only 1 in 8 elementary teacher preparation programs nationwide devote adequate time to teaching fundamental math content topics, including numbers and operations, algebraic thinking, geometry and measurement — plus data analysis and probability.
The National Council on Teacher Quality, which released the teacher preparation study April 8, found the average undergraduate program dedicates 85 hours of instructional time to foundational math content knowledge — 20 hours short of what the organization recommends.
Graduate programs devote even less time to the topic — 14 hours total — with only 5% meeting or approaching the minimum recommendation of 150 hours. The council said 22% of undergraduate programs earned an “F” for their performance in this area: More than 80% of graduate level programs also earned this failing grade.
“Teachers need to know how to do more than just follow the steps in math to get the right answer,” Heather Peske, the organization’s president, said in a statement. “They need to know why those steps work. It’s like the difference between a basketball player and a coach. The player can learn their role and follow directions, but the coach needs to understand the bigger picture, the why behind every move.”
Michael Rubin, principal of Uxbridge High School in Massachusetts, roughly 60 miles southwest of Boston, said finding high-quality teachers of any subject is difficult, particularly in math and science.
“When we deal with even more advanced levels of mathematics, with highly specialized content, the number of educators is even more limited,” he said. “My father was a math teacher for 39 years, and not a year has gone by since he retired nine years ago where a principal has not reached out and asked him if he is willing or able to come in to teach, tutor or substitute.”
Math Matters Study
Indeed, Gallup poll responders said the problem was even more acute in later grades where the math curriculum gets harder: 64% of principals said this was “very challenging” at the high school level versus 56% at the middle school and 23% at the elementary level.
The struggle can also be seen in lower-income and rural communities, like Sheridan County School District #3 in Clearmont, Wyoming, which enrolls just 83 students K-12. Chase Christensen, who serves as both superintendent and district principal, said staff are frequently asked to take on other roles.
Students in Sheridan County School District #3 in Clearmont, Wyoming, raise the American flag in August 2024. (Facebook)
Next fall, he said, a physical education teacher will lead advanced mathematics classes — they will focus on pre-algebra, geometry, statistics and probability — at the middle school level while he works toward earning his certification in that subject. Christensen said he’s grateful for his staff’s’ flexibility.
“When we all sit down and take a hard look at what the needs of the school are, people just step up and we figure out how it is going to work,” he said.
Stephanie Marken, a senior partner at Gallup leading its U.S. custom research division, said schools’ trouble finding quality math instructors is particularly concerning because these teachers play a pivotal role in making this often tough subject palatable.
“If you have a highly engaged teacher who’s really committed and qualified in that subject area, we know that it brings math education to life in a way that you just can’t do otherwise,” Marken said.
Math anxiety, the fear that students — and their teachers — share about this subject further harms their opportunity and ability to succeed in it.
Stephanie Marken leads U.S. custom research at Gallup (Gallup)
“We know that a lot of students have negative emotions surrounding math and that there’s a lot of pressure that math places upon students,” Marken said. “We know that the teacher makes a big difference in breaking down math and making it feel really relevant and achievable.”
Paxton, of Colorado Springs, said her district employs several strategies to manage the problem. It supports teachers on visas and those coming from alternative certification pathways through monthly meetings that focus on best practices, classroom management and cultural assimilation.
It also works with Teach for America, which has, for three decades, recruited college graduates to teach in high-need schools for two years. Plus, it’s built a solid relationship with its local university’s teacher training program and has launched a “grow your own” pipeline to support teacher aides in earning their bachelor’s degrees, completing internships in the district and ultimately becoming licensed teachers there.
“These layered supports and creative recruitment efforts are our response to a national challenge,” Paxton said.
Gallup’s Math Matters Study went beyond schools’ issues with hiring to families’ experience on campus: While roughly a third of the 808 parents who responded said their children receive some math tutoring, only 13% received such help more than weekly. Gallup notes that prior research shows high-quality math tutoring can improve achievement by an additional three to 15 months of learning, “but the most impactful tutoring programs must include frequent sessions — three times a week or more.”
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Roughly a third of parents said they would enroll their child in tutoring if it was available or more accessible.
Math Matters Study
Parents also reported a lack of communication about the subject on the part of educators: One in six said they “never” hear from their child’s school about the goals for their child’s math learning or what their student is learning in math class.
The survey showed, too, a lack of understanding — and consensus — among educators about what constitutes high-quality instructional materials, curriculum aligned to college- and career-ready standards: 37% of all education leaders said they were “not at all familiar” with or “not very familiar with” the concept.
Rethinking the Definition of High-Quality Instructional Materials for Math
Sixty-eight percent of school superintendents and 46% of school principals said their building or district had no official definition of the term. But when supplied with a definition by Gallup, which identified high-quality instructional materials as those “which are standards-aligned and use evidence-based practices for the content area,” 69% said most or all of their math curriculum qualified.
Professional development proved an added challenge. Thirty-nine percent of educators surveyed rated their own school’s math-related professional development as “fair” or “poor.” This statistic was worse at the high school level where 6% said it was poor and 39% said it was fair.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation sponsored the Math Matters Study and provides financial support to The 74.