ABCTE, the most stripped-down route into teacher certification there is, contracted with the research group Mathematica to gauge the effectiveness of its teachers in Florida. This first time out, results were not particularly good for the privately organized ABCTE, short for the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence.

ABCTE certifies teachers based largely on whether they pass tests of content and pedagogy specific to subject and level. Despite being greeted apoplectically by the teacher preparation establishment after its formation in 2001, ABCTE has since gotten nine states on board, at least for some of its certifications.

Examining student test scores for 30 ABCTE grade 4-10 teachers in Florida found no difference in reading performance compared to students of non-ABCTE teachers. However, students of ABCTE teachers performed significantly worse in math than their peers in the classrooms of non-ABCTE teachers.

Mathematica laid out possible reasons for the lower math performance of ABCTE-taught students. ABCTE math teachers in their sample had less teaching experience than their counterparts. The researchers also noted that teachers in the sample had lower-than-average ABCTE exam scores.

Mathematica urged caution in jumping to conclusions in part because of the small sample size.