Teachers'Mathematics Knowledge For Teaching And School Context
Teachers' Mathematics
Knowledge for Teaching
and School Context
A Study of California Teachers
Heather C. Hill
Harvard University
Sarah Theule Lubienski
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign
This article examines the relationship between the mathematical knowledge
of 438 K-8 California teachers and the demographics of the schools in which
they work. To measure mathematical knowledge, we used a series of multiplechoice
problems meant to represent both the content teachers teach and the
specialized knowledge of mathematics that teachers might possess. Teachers
in schools with higher proportions of low-SES and Hispanic students
performed more poorly on these measures than did teachers from other schools.
Implications for policy and for further research are discussed.
Keywords: teacher knowledge; student demographics
Wide academic achievement gaps exist between students of different
races, ethnicities, and social classes (Braswell, Daane, & Grigg, 2003;
Jencks & Phillips, 1998; Lee, 2002). As scholars have explored reasons for
these achievement gaps, policy makers have designed programs meant to
close them. While some programs, such as Head Start, Title I, and after-school
tutoring, are designed to directly address student needs, others target school
and teacher resources thought to affect student achievement.
Educational Policy
Volume 21 Number 5
November 2007 747-768
© 2007 Corwin Press
10.1177/0895904807307061
http://epx.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
747
Authors' Note: The authors would like to thank Nicholas Townsend, Patrick Callahan, Rena
Dorph, and David Goldstein with the preparation of data for this article. The research reported
in this article was supported in part by the National Science...
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