Depressing news on who is teaching children

How could someone fail elementary school math? The story is here:

Aspiring school teachers
fail in math
Only 27 percent of the teaching
candidates pass

Updated: Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 1:47 PM EDT
Published : Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 7:41 AM EDT

Bruce Morin
MALDEN, Mass. (WPRI) - According to state education officials, nearly three-quarters of the people who took the state elementary school teacher’s licensing exam this year failed the new math section.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results Tuesday. They say that only 27 percent of the more than 600 candidates who took the test passed. The test was administered in March of this year.

The teacher’s licensing exam tested potential teachers on their knowledge of elementary school mathematics. This included geometry, statistics, and probability.

Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester was not surprised by the results. He told the Boston Globe that these results indicate many students are not receiving an adequate math education. . . . .