The selection and preparation of mathematics teachers Teacher preparation is a vital component of any educational system. Research data shows that there is a 39% difference in the achievement levels of students who have more/less effective teachers. The federal government also recognizes the importance of the classroom teacher. Recent No Child Left Behind legislation highlights the role teachers play in academic achievement. To meet the requirements of NCLB, states and universities will have to change how teachers are prepared. Carefully selecting and properly training teachers and then giving them the authority to teach students as they see fit will go a long way toward solving the problem. poor achievement of American students. On the other hand, giving the opportunity to teach to low-ability, poorly trained individuals has produced several decades of poor student achievement. Many of these academically unmotivated teachers demonstrate little content knowledge or curiosity and have been among the most flagrant violators of the scientific application of educational research. Witness the indiscriminate use of trivial tests (learning styles, right/left brain, multiple intelligences, etc.) that claim to classify students in a few minutes. What's worse is that the learning theory behind these fads may actually be even more suspect than the test. The current generation of American teachers firmly believes that lecture is a universally poor teaching method, that standardized tests are fatally flawed, and that group learning is far superior to individual learning, all without scientific justification. If America is to close the achievement gap with other industrialized countries, nations must be willing to put aside political correctness and educational delusions to put competent teachers in classrooms. There is constant pressure for education departments to find new pedagogy, criticize old pedagogy, and generally rock the academic waters so that their existence can be justified. Teacher preparation programs must focus only on those aspects of educational research that have been shown to produce improvements in outcomes and stop experimenting on prospective teachers and their dependent students. The main reason I am pursuing a doctorate in mathematics education is to have the credentials necessary to teach mathematics pedagogy courses to prospective teachers at a four-year institution. I firmly believe that my experience as a teacher and the intellectual training I am acquiring will allow me to make a positive contribution to the cause of training competent teachers. The area of ​​teacher preparation is extensively researched and is currently a high-profile issue in education..