The issues are teacher anxiety with regard to their math skills and their own stereotypes of girls’ learning ability. Raising the math requirement will not necessarily eliminate such anxiety or stereotypical assumptions.

Furthermore, one has to ask whether raising the math requirements for elementary school teachers “beyond basic algebra and geometry” is needed. Please correct me if I am mistaken, but I don’t believe elementary school students are required to study algebra and geometry, let alone trigonometry, calculus, or statistics (which would be those skills which are “beyond basic algebra and geometry”). In addition, I cannot see how telling elementary teacher candidates who have anxiety about math that they should “find another profession” would be helpful. (In fact, that may very well increase anxiety.) There are many qualities that make an effective elementary school teacher; instead of an overly-simplistic policy of “love it or leave it”, perhaps education professors should work with teacher candidates in educating them about the research regarding girls and math achievement, including this research you mentioned. They can work with teachers who have anxiety about math to build their confidence and in turn build their students’ confidence, especially that of girls.

Thank you for reading.