The problem with asking teachers to think on the spot is that teachers in America are especially dumb: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2019/03/13/why

The problem with asking teachers to think on the spot is that teachers in America are especially dumb: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2019/03/13/why-so-many-aspiring-teachers-cant-pass-a-licensing-test--and-why-it-matters/?sh=64db8b0f321a https://www.forbes.com/sites/nataliewexler/2019/03/13/why-so... My mother was a public school teacher. She passed her test on the first try, which was extremely rare at her school. She was taught in India, and became an American teacher as an older woman. She was an outlier. She graduated from a major public teaching program in our state of California (CSU Fullerton). Most teachers fail their tests on the first try. This is not advanced calculus... this is elementary mathematics and reading. The issue is that accolades in the education department do not translate to results. The state creates a monopoly on teaching via its certification process, with means education departments are guaranteed funding regardless of their results, given that once you have the credential, you're considered 'equal' to other teachers. Despite my mother doing very well on her tests, she was fired and not granted tenure because she didn't follow her principal's teaching methodology. Even though her students were passing their own exams at higher rates and doing better (And of course my mother taught two boys who went on to make careers in science and mathematics), she was fired for not following the failing methodology. This is what is wrong with American schooling. It's a race to the bottom and the teachers have no idea what's actual achievement because they've never achieved basic elementary schooling, much less seen it in others. Here are example questions: https://www.mometrix.com/academy/praxis-math-practice-test/ https://www.mometrix.com/academy/praxis-math-practice-test/ These are not difficult, at all. EDIT: in some ways america is doomed by its own success, in that, for those who can actually do math, reading, and writing, there are significantly more lucrative fields than teaching. Unfortunately, since teachers can't teach those skills, it's really a new aristocracy formed by parents who do know those skills passing them on to children.