Right in the middle of the pack

Here’s a NY Times article on a recent international math test for teachers.  Teachers in the U.S. didn’t do so well, but the thing that struck me the most about the article was the reaction of the president of the NCTM, the organization most responsible for the last 20 years of constructivist math:

“There are so many people who bash our teachers’ math knowledge that to be honest these results are better than what a lot of people might expect,” said Hank Kepner, professor of mathematics education at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, who is president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. “We show up pretty well here, right in the middle of the pack.”