Educators, Experts Grapple With How to Improve Nation’s Plummeting Math Scores

After bad publicity from the latest national Report Card, academic and scholastic experts from the mathematics realm said change was needed and fast.

Students at Pathways in Technology Early College High School in the New York City borough of Brooklyn build a ferris wheel as part of their interactive instruction during a 10th grade algebra and trigonometry class on Oct. 23, 2025. Amal Chen/The Epoch Times

Education policy groups advocate for major reforms in K–12 math instruction but disagree on long-term goals and the importance of standardized state test scores.

Proposed changes include more stringent teacher training programs and licensure requirements, better curricula, longer daily math periods, alternatives for managing elementary school classrooms with diverse ability levels, and updating high school course sequences with a greater focus on data science.

The call to arms for math professionals, noted in recent reports and meetings, follows reports of plummeting math scores at several grade levels nationwide as the 2026 state assessments loom.

The latest report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, based on 2024 state test scores, indicates that most public high school seniors earn diplomas without being proficient in math, while most fourth grade and eighth grade math students perform below grade level.

At the University of California–San Diego, a coalition of college and state officials determined that one in eight freshmen enrolled at the school this fall could not meet middle school math standards, according to its Nov. 6 report.

The renewed Mathematical Sciences Education Board, organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, met in October to begin work on a national improvement plan.

That board was dormant when math scores began their descent 15 years ago.

“I really do worry that the declining pool of highly qualified math teachers is fast approaching a natural crisis,” board member Gail Burrill, a former high school math teacher and textbook author, said at the Oct. 23 meeting.

2 Camps Together

Two camps, traditional mathematicians and math teachers, are now working to solve the crisis.

The mathematician camp favors the traditional sequence of courses leading up to high school calculus, with a foundation built on rules and repetition of solving equations, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The math teacher camp prefers instruction of basic numeracy concepts followed by practical problem-solving applications that are relevant to a student’s academic or career path.

College and university teacher training programs are caught in the crossfire.

The Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University provided an example of the philosophical differences in teaching fractions.

A traditional mathematician would demonstrate how to add one-half and one-quarter before giving the class 20 similar problems to practice individually.

By contrast, the teacher camp, which the center refers to as progressive, would give students measuring cups and recipes, then ask them to figure out how to measure one-half and one-quarter of a cup of rice.

“Students need both conceptual understanding and procedural fluency,” states the center’s recent State of the American Student 2025 report. “There’s no evidence to show that teaching either procedures or problem-solving is exclusively ‘best.’”

The New York State Education Department reaffirmed its commitment to a more progressive approach with the 2025 to 2026 Numeracy Initiative recommendations.

That program, provided by nonprofit educator training consultant TeachingWorks, opposes teaching math by repetition and drilling, as well as dividing classrooms into ability groups.

It also challenges school leaders to prioritize developing “positive mathematical identities” over increasing test scores, to close the achievement gap by race and income, and to prioritize culturally responsible learning materials that do not reinforce harmful stereotypes.

Twenty-three states do business with TeachingWorks, according to the company website, which defines its mission as “creating transformational learning experiences for every student.”

The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, in its Oct. 29 City Journal report, stated that the Numeracy Initiative “emphasizes equal outcomes over merit and rigor.”

“The framework has faced widespread criticism for advising that all students take the same math classes until the 10th grade,” the report states. “This approach hinders advanced students, who typically take algebra in 8th grade.”

The New York State Education Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Teacher Training, Classroom Instruction

The Center on Reinventing Public Education, which endorses extending the amount of time for daily math instruction plus more tutoring beyond the school day, reported that the number of teacher training program graduates who are prepared to teach math decreased by 36 percent between 2012 and 2020.

The National Council on Teacher Quality advocates for more rigorous math teacher licensure requirements at the elementary school level.

Thirty-seven states do not require teachers to pass math licensing tests, according to the council, and only six of the states that do require applicants to demonstrate strong math knowledge.

“Do teachers understand fractions and decimals before they go in and teach it to students?” National Council on Teacher Quality President Heather Peske told The Epoch Times. “It’s important to know that.”

Her agency’s June report indicates that only four states require school districts to select high-quality math instructional materials that provide clear directions for laying a conceptual foundation and demonstrating practical applications.

The EdReports website provides a summary and rating of curriculum products used across the country.

Members of the Mathematical Sciences Education Board said the traditional K–12 math sequence should be reconfigured to incorporate geometry and statistics into second-level high school algebra courses. They also said more options for data science, engineering, and quantitative reasoning instruction should be available as alternatives to the pre-calculus to calculus sequence.

“My message here is connecting the real world and the workforce to what we’re teaching,” said Padmanabhan Seshaiyer, director of George Mason University’s College of Science.

“Otherwise, a fact is just a fact, and students will either remember or not remember.”

Accountability, Assessments

President George W. Bush pushed accountability standards for teachers and initially saw a spike in state test scores, but there was strong pushback against testing from teachers and parents, especially in the suburbs.

States lowered proficiency standards to qualify for more federal aid, according to the Center on Reinventing Education report.

“By 2021, even students scoring in the 25th percentile were graduating with B averages or better,” the report states, noting that grade inflation became a national problem after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fifty-seven percent of grades “didn’t align with student knowledge as measured by tests,” the report reads.

Mathematical Sciences Education Board members question whether state assessment test scores are fair and accurate indicators of student performance. Burrill called them a “stranglehold on what math is taught and not taught.”

“Enormous resources in student time are aimed at improving scores that lead to unproductive success,” she said.

Jon Wray, board member and math coordinator for Howard County high schools in Maryland, said the state assessment reports do not reflect strong performances in Advanced Placement math courses and SATs, as he has witnessed in his district and many others.

By contrast, Peske told The Epoch Times that state assessments and the national assessment reports are still relevant and important tools for monitoring math progress in public education.

What Is Ahead

The National Conference of State Legislatures stated in an Oct. 22 policy brief that several states are taking actions to improve math performance.

In North Dakota, there is a pilot program to develop individualized math improvement plans for students.

Indiana is adding math screeners to identify children who are falling behind so they can receive additional math help.

In Texas, the Legislature provides more money for tutoring, according to the policy brief.

Alabama, which requires every public K–5 school to have a math teacher coach for improved instruction, was the only state in the nation to report higher fourth grade state math scores in 2024 than in 2019 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic).

It is also the only state that has met all benchmarks set by the National Council on Teacher Quality for math teacher licensure requirements and curriculum.

Karen Anderson, director of Alabama’s Office of Math Improvement, said parents, students, teachers, and administrators have embraced a reformed approach to numeracy centered on more classroom engagement and word-based math problems, as opposed to the traditional method of assigning lengthy worksheets to be completed after brief explanations and demonstrations of math techniques.

Students who need extra help are identified quickly, she said, but the standards are never watered down.

“All stakeholders understand the why,” Anderson told The Epoch Times. “We want students who can think clearly and solve problems. We are laser-focused on standards now.”

Alabama’s department of education, she said, will eventually amend licensure requirements so that teachers will have to not only demonstrate mastery of grade math levels, but also explain how they would guide students to proficiency.

“It’s more than an ‘are you smarter than a fifth grader’ exam,” she said.

Without properly trained math teachers and an overhaul of the current system in which all students at a grade level learn all the same materials at the same time, national standardized test scores will continue declining while students graduate from high school lacking math knowledge, the Center on Reinventing Public Education report states.

“Teachers are, out of necessity, merely passing students on from grade to grade, whether or not they have mastered key concepts,” the report reads.

This is a critical time to help children who are falling behind at grade level in need of tutoring and the higher-achieving math students who need access to advanced-level courses, Peske said.

“STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] career growth is three times the rate of non-STEM,” she said. “Math is really a skill that can be learned with effective teaching.”

Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled the name of Jon Wray, math coordinator for Maryland’s Howard County high schools. The Epoch Times regrets the error.