by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader

My comments concerning the qualifications necessary for teaching high school math, Determining the right candidates, created a great deal of discussion both in comments sent to “The Principal Difference” and to me personally.  A wide spectrum of individuals ranging from    readers to former colleagues to friends and even members of my family all took exception to my contention that I would require a degree in mathematics before I would interview a potential hire.  The assessments of my views ranged from totally clueless to sadly misguided.    I prefer to think that I was merely misunderstood. I would like to take a few paragraphs to clarify my contentions.

Not Merely Black and White

For many readers, what I wrote apparently translated into an assumption that any person with a math degree is automatically a better teacher than someone without one.  This interpretation brought forth a series of anecdotes about nightmare high school or college classroom experiences with “math geniuses” who had a brilliant knowledge of the subject but zero ability to explain the material.  Rest assured I have many of the same terrifying memories.  While I can understand how a reader might think that I was postulating that a degree in math automatically qualified one to teach, this was not my ultimate point.  Perhaps my mistake was   my decision to publish the thoughts on selecting the candidates before sharing the actual interviewing process.  In that article I stated that one portion of the interview would include a fifteen-minute teaching demonstration.  During this exercise as well as the rest of the lengthy and intense process, the teacher who prefers to talk mathematical jargon to his chalk board rather than communicate critical math skills to his students would be discovered and rejected.

One More Try

Let me explain my position more clearly.  After looking over all available resumes when beginning the hiring process I look first at those who have had previous successful high school teaching experience.  For those who have not previously taught, I find the ones who possess a degree in math.  These two groups formed the initial selection pool.  After looking at the total background—previous experiences professional and recreational—references, transcripts, etc., the top candidates are brought in for interviews.  This process includes teaching lessons, writing samples, and question and answer sessions.   Phone calls are made to previous employers.  After that process is complete the best prospects are selected and jobs are offered.

If there are still vacancies and no good candidates remain from the original group, I would not automatically hire the next available but less-talented candidate who has a math degree on their resume.  Rather, I would then look for the best remaining candidate regardless of their precise math background.  It is important to note that there is a wide range of requirements between a degree and certification.  Twenty-four hours of math can get one certified in the state of Virginia while most colleges in the state require thirty-eight hours for a degree.  In the situation where a position needs to be filled someone like the commenter who had thirty hours of math courses would certainly have to be considered. 

No Reprise of My Fair Lady

Finally, I want to clarify the comment that I would rather make a math person into a teacher than transform a teacher into a mathematician.  I was not advocating that it would be easy or wise to take a horrific teacher with a math degree and believe they could be transformed Elisa Doolittle-style into a great educator.  Rather, the point was that, in the long-term, it was easier to resolve an individual who had a minor weakness in their teaching skills over one who was lacking in knowledge of the subject.