I went to school in the US and the test represents what I personally had been taught and was competent in by the end of 7th grade (age 13), not 10th grade (age 16). That was some years ago. It wasn't in Florida but I have no reason to believe their schools are substantially different.
It might be that the test doesn't match actual 10th grade curriculum and is a minimum competency test. Then again, based on math skills of typical high school and college graduates, I am not completely surprised that school board members with a masters in education can't do basic math. It's not just math that is a problem, there are also many high school graduates now who are functionally illiterate (meaning they may have basic reading skills but can't understand anything they read that is more than very simple). This is not to say the schools are incompetent since obviously many very skilled and talented people make it through the same system.
Also, it has been established that Masters of Education students have the lowest GRE and SAT scores of any major.
"Research over the years has indicated that education majors, who enter college with the lowest average SAT scores, leave with the highest grades. Some of academic evidence documenting easy A's for future teachers goes back more than 50 years.
Furthermore, the most intelligent and competent education students are the most likely to rapidly leave the field (see Progress Through the Teacher Pipeline; Henke, Chen, & Geis, 2000; http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000152.pdf)
There's tons of papers and research about this issue, sometimes discussed as the "teacher quality" problem, though that may be a misnomer. More than I can reasonable cite but once you know about the issue, and some of the above citations as starting points can lead you down a pretty deep rabbit hole once you start researching.
It might be that the test doesn't match actual 10th grade curriculum and is a minimum competency test. Then again, based on math skills of typical high school and college graduates, I am not completely surprised that school board members with a masters in education can't do basic math. It's not just math that is a problem, there are also many high school graduates now who are functionally illiterate (meaning they may have basic reading skills but can't understand anything they read that is more than very simple). This is not to say the schools are incompetent since obviously many very skilled and talented people make it through the same system.
Also, it has been established that Masters of Education students have the lowest GRE and SAT scores of any major.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505145_162-37245744/heres-the-na...
"Research over the years has indicated that education majors, who enter college with the lowest average SAT scores, leave with the highest grades. Some of academic evidence documenting easy A's for future teachers goes back more than 50 years.
The referenced study on education major grade inflation: http://www.aei.org/article/education/k-12/grade-inflation-fo...
Furthermore, the most intelligent and competent education students are the most likely to rapidly leave the field (see Progress Through the Teacher Pipeline; Henke, Chen, & Geis, 2000; http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2000/2000152.pdf)
There's tons of papers and research about this issue, sometimes discussed as the "teacher quality" problem, though that may be a misnomer. More than I can reasonable cite but once you know about the issue, and some of the above citations as starting points can lead you down a pretty deep rabbit hole once you start researching.