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Growing concerns about chronic mediocre performance by American students on mathematics high-stakes tests have now called into question how teacher preparation programs are preparing future teachers to teach mathematics at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. How well teachers know math content is central to their capacity to use instructional materials wisely, to access students’ progress, and to make sound judgments about instructional presentation (Ball, Hill, & Bass, 2005). In an era of over-reliance of high stakes standardized assessment, schools, teachers, and students are being defined based upon assessment results. This assessment, coupled with the new implementation of a mathematics licensure test for elementary candidates in North Carolina, has prompted schools of education to re-examine the way in which current pre-service candidates are prepared for the licensure examination and to understand the amount of math content required to pass the examination.
Improving the instructional quality—primarily developing a rigorous curriculum—has typically overshadowed the practice of teaching (Ball et al., 2005). In 2016, the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction reported that from 2014 to 2015, the average pass rate for the General Curriculum Mathematics (GCM) subtest for North Carolina schools of education was 75%, while their 2015-2016 pass rates dipped to 59%. Table 1 highlights the GCM pass rates for schools of education located within a 100-mile radius from the site of this study.
Table 1. GCM pass rates for selected North Carolina schools of education
| North Carolina General Curriculum Mathematics Subtest Best Attemptby Institution for September 1, 2014 - August 31, 2015 and September 1, 2015 to Present |
| Best Attempt | 2014-2015 | 2015-Present |
| Institution | Pass Rate | Number of Test Takers | Number of Pass | Pass Rate | Number of Test Takers | Number of Pass |
| A | 79% | 146 | 116 | 56% | 192 | 108 |
| B | 100% | 37 | 37 | 94% | 32 | 30 |
| C | 69% | 16 | 11 | 52% | 21 | 11 |
| D | 82% | 44 | 36 | 56% | 25 | 14 |
| E | 58% | 24 | 14 | 41% | 17 | 7 |
| F | 50% | 26 | 13 | 25% | 16 | 4 |
| G | 95% | 74 | 70 | 75% | 53 | 40 |
| H | 98% | 50 | 49 | 95% | 38 | 36 |
| I | 56% | 79 | 44 | 43% | 192 | 82 |
| J | 80% | 118 | 94 | 53% | 74 | 39 |
Adapted from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, 2016.