State math policies: Do they add up to meaningful support?

This just in: over six in ten U.S. adults view math skills as very important in their personal life, and four in ten wish they learned more math skills in middle or high school.

I am one of the four in ten. And as a later-in-life-converted “math person,” I was excited to see the National Council on Teacher Quality’s (NCTQ) newly released State of the States: Five Policy Levers to Improve Math Instruction, which expands what we know about state math efforts. The report evaluates whether – and how well – each state meets five key policy actions, including requiring districts to select high-quality math curricula and supporting implementation, and providing professional learning and ongoing coaching for teachers.

NCTQ reports that the majority of states have a long way to go:

Only 4 states require districts to select high-quality math materials from a vetted list, and 24 states do not offer any recommendations on which math curricula districts should use.
While 28 states provide funding for professional learning for in-service teachers in math, only 6 explicitly align those opportunities with implementing high-quality materials.
Only 6 states financially support math coaches or specialists in K-12 schools.

It’s clear that most states want to support effective classroom instruction – just look at NCTQ’s 2024 report on state literacy policies, which shows that 33 states provide recommended or required lists of state-vetted reading curriculum. But as I’ve written about before, the push to implement numeracy policies has yet to gain the traction that the science of reading has.

While at least nine states have passed laws aimed at supporting math education, it takes a comprehensive math strategy to truly improve student outcomes. I’ve been on the lookout for the most promising ones through the Collaborative for Student Success’ March Mathness tournament. Over the last two years, we’ve evaluated high-profile efforts like the Alabama Numeracy Act and tracked rising stars like Kentucky’s Numeracy Counts Act. The NCTQ report makes it clear we need more of this, and soon.

Math skills are necessary to do everything from paying the bills to baking a cake. Everyone deserves the opportunity to learn them. Let’s keep pushing states to do their part.

Jocelyn Pickford is an education policy and communications specialist focusing on understanding and promoting practitioner-informed public policy across the private, public and non-profit sectors as a Partner with Waypoint Education Partners. She began her career in education as a high school English teacher in a regular and special education inclusion classroom and is now a public school parent and recent member of her local district school board. Previously, Jocelyn led the design, launch and implementation of the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Education to integrate teachers into the national education policy dialogue.

Jocelyn’s passion for her work was seeded during her own public school education and took root during her classroom teaching experience in Fairfax County, Virginia, where she led action research and presented instructional materials to a variety of audiences. Jocelyn earned her bachelor’s degree from Trinity College (CT), working as a professional writer and editor prior to becoming a teacher, and obtained her master’s in secondary education from George Washington University. Jocelyn lives outside Philadelphia with her husband and two children.