The effectiveness of teacher education was examined by taking two indicators into account: future teachers' mean achievement on a paper-and-pencil test as an indicator of quality, and the variability of teacher achievement due to background characteristics as an indicator of equity. In detail, the effects of gender and language on mathematics content knowledge and mathematics pedagogical content knowledge were examined. The analyses were embedded in the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics, and they referred to primary teachers from 15 countries in their final year of teacher education. The study revealed significant cultural differences in the effectiveness of teacher education. Gender and language effects could be decomposed into direct and indirect effects. The latter represented a combination of differential choices of teacher education programs according to background and differential achievement of teachers from these programs. Implications for educational policy in the United States are discussed. (Contains 11 tables and 4 figures.)