The unbearable math skills of English teachers
One English teacher, to be precise. Ms. Erin Cougill, who teaches English at Central High School in Brooksville, FL, has flunked the mathematics part of the state's teacher certification test six times. One more failing grade, and she's out of a job. She claim to have a "math block," and some of her students are defending her.
It's true that her poor math skills don't necessarily relate to her ability to understanding and teaching English. Here are the test development specs for the Mathematics (grades 6-12) portion of the FTCE, which I assume is the section she cannot pass. It does contain some relatively high-level questions about trignometry and calculus - but according to this report, one only need answer 53% of the items correctly in order to pass.
So it's likely that Ms. Cougill is not just missing the tricky items, but also the more basic ones on geometry, algebraic equations and understanding basic mathematical terms and reasoning. The question is - should Ms. Cougill be relieved of her job teaching English? You be the judge...