Late to the conversation, but I wanted to address the difference between teachers with "degrees in their fields" and those with "degrees in teaching." That is often an argument made by those outside of education to claim that those with degrees in their fields have much more content-knowledge than those who have education degrees. The perception is that a teacher who has a degree in secondary mathematics education pretty much took a bunch of teaching classes with a few math classes sprinkled in there (but probably nothing much more advanced than Calculus). However, if you actually LOOK at the college courses that secondary education majors take, the "content" classes usually differ by only six to nine credit hours (so two or three classes). The main difference between someone who majored in "mathematics" and someone who majored in "mathematics education" is NOT how many 300 and 400-level math classes they had to take -- it's the electives. If I major in "mathematics," I can choose from a large number of electives (my non-math classes). However, those who major in "mathematics education" have their electives taken up by their education/pedagogy classes. So, a mathematics major and a mathematics education major may sit in the EXACT SAME math classes for four years (Calculus III and other advanced math classes that go well beyond anything a secondary math teacher would be required to actually teach in a high school setting)...but while the mathematics major is taking whatever random electives she wants to take the rest of the day, the mathematics education major has to go to classes related to education (math pedagogy classes...technology in education classes...practicum classes with supervised "real classroom" teaching experiences...special education classes...etc.). So, be careful about assuming that anyone with a secondary education degree is inferior to those with content-area degrees in terms of content knowledge at the collegiate level.
