When trying to solve the riddle of declining student scores, policymakers and advocates point in every direction, blaming overlarge classes, low funding and socioeconomic disadvantage.
Much less scrutinized are educators themselves, though virtually every expert credits teachers with having the greatest impact on student outcomes.
Now comes a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality that ties weak results in math among fourth graders to poor teacher training and oversight. In the same way that third-grade reading rates can forecast students’ academic future, math skills in fourth grade portend college enrollment and future earnings.
Yet a quarter of all fourth graders nationally scored “below basic” on the most recent national test, and Washington mirrors that rate. In real life, these figures translate to 20,400 fourth graders in Washington who are unable to add and subtract multi-digit whole numbers, fractions or decimals.
Unhappily, our state is highlighted in the report for having some of the weakest teacher-education programs in the country on math training, ironic in a place with an economy built around tech and engineering.
The Council on Teacher Quality graded many schools of education here — including the University of Washington, Seattle University, Gonzaga University and Washington State University — with an “F” on math preparation for teachers-in-training.
Another reason for Washington’s overall “weak” rating in math preparation is a relatively recent rule change around licensing. No longer must aspiring elementary school teachers pass a basic skills test in math.
That decision was signed into law by former Gov. Jay Inslee in 2019, as an effort to diversify this state’s teaching ranks. And it’s working. Though still overwhelmingly white, Washington’s schools are employing more teachers of color than they used to. Meanwhile, math scores have plunged.
Much of that drop came after students returned to class post-pandemic, and pass rates are slowly climbing back from that nadir. Still, more than half of fourth graders in Washington were unable to do math at grade level in 2024.
Erica Hernandez-Scott, who runs the state’s Professional Educators Standards Board, predictably disputes these ratings. She views Washington as uniquely forward-thinking in its approach to teacher training, and described the study’s methodology and conclusions as “questionable at best.”
But Chris Reykdal, the state superintendent of public instruction, “strongly supports the analysis,” according to a spokesperson, who pointed out that Reykdal’s office has no say over licensing rules.
That is yet another reason for Gov. Bob Ferguson to seriously consider giving the person in that job more authority and making it an appointed cabinet-level position, accountable and answerable to him.
Curricula and teacher education: These are not terms that inspire much electricity among lawmakers or the voting public. But they are crucial to get right if Washington is ever going to put its public education system on a better track.
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