Few elementary education programs give future teachers enough exposure to foundational math concepts, like number sense and algebraic reasoning, before they reach the classroom. That’s the upshot of a ...

Debates over how to teach math echo the conflicts over reading instruction, and some issues are similar. But unlike math, reading—in its full sense—draws on everything a person has been able to learn.

Each time Xiuwen Wu greets a new class of preservice teachers studying math education at National Louis University in Wheeling, Ill., she asks them to take a survey. It asks about the future teachers’ ...