Even when elementary school teachers understand math concepts, they often feel unprepared to teach the fundamentals of the subject to young students.
To address this problem, some states have called for their colleges and universities to adjust how they prepare future elementary educators to teach foundational ideas like addition, multiplication, fractions, and place value. Leading the way is Alabama, which recently completed its revision of math education coursework and plans to develop a matching exam for teacher-candidates.
“Teaching math requires specialized knowledge,” said Megan Burton, an education professor who focuses on elementary math and STEM education at Auburn University. “In the past, we have not done a great job of preparing our future elementary teachers because they have to learn to teach every single subject.”
Auburn is one of 24 Alabama colleges and universities that adjusted their course requirements after the state enacted its landmark 2022 Alabama Numeracy Act, which includes a menu of reforms designed to improve elementary math achievement.
In the time since Alabama passed that law, 23 states have passed laws or implemented new policies related to math education, according to an Education Week tracker. Nine of those policies call for reviews and adjustments of teacher-preparation programs, though the details of the policies differ.
Blending math content and pedagogy in teacher-preparation programs
Teacher preparation is controlled by the states, which typically set largely different coursework requirements for basic math content knowledge and separate math “methods” courses focused on learning about math-specific teaching strategies for younger students.
Some groups, like the National Council on Teacher Quality, say that states don’t offer enough focused coursework on how students understand numbers, how to identify gaps in learning, and how to help develop both conceptual understand and fluency in math procedures.
Before the changes required by its law, Alabama required early childhood, elementary, and K-6 special education teacher candidates to take four general math courses from their college or university math department—learning about concepts like algebra and trigonometry alongside students in other academic programs—and just one math methods course in the education department, where they learned about math-specific teaching strategies for younger students.
“Many times teachers were taking courses that may have made them better mathematicians but not necessarily better able to teach 2nd grade math,” Alabama state Superintendent Eric Mackey said at a Sept. 10 state board of education meeting.
Under the state’s numeracy law, a committee of postsecondary educators created guidance for the preparation of elementary school teachers, explaining how programs should upgrade math coursework. Colleges and universities developed new course requirements, which took effect in the fall 2026 semester.
Under the new course strands, approved by the state board in an Oct. 8 resolution, Alabama elementary and special education teacher candidates will now take four specialized courses that integrate early math content with subject-specific teaching methods, also known as pedagogy. The courses cover concepts like properties of numbers, the base 10 system, fractions, proportional reasoning, measurement, and algebraic thinking.
Three of those courses must be taught at the upper level of the program, when teacher candidates are also required to observe in public school classrooms to see the concepts at work. The state is also designing a foundations of math exam teacher candidates will be required to pass for certification. Organizers expect that exam will be ready when the first teacher candidates to take the new course sequence graduate from their programs.
Ensuring teachers have more confidence in teaching math is key to addressing student achievement, Burton said.
Researchers have found that elementary school teachers often have higher levels of anxiety about math—and about their ability to teach it—than their peers who teach at the secondary level. That anxiety correlates with lower test scores for students and may lead teachers to adopt more rote, rigid teaching methods that present math as a disconnected series of rules rather than a coherent, connected sequence of ideas.
Because math concepts build sequentially, a weaker understanding of those early basics can lead to snowballing problems as students progress into more advanced math classes in later grades. A weak understanding of fractions, for example, can lead to struggles learning algebra, which can make it difficult for students to complete higher-level math courses like calculus before they finish high school.
Making teacher-preparation programs relevant to the elementary classroom
Just 1 in 6 undergraduate elementary teacher-preparation programs spends adequate time on essential foundational math concepts for young students, contended the NCTQ in a 2025 review of over 1,100 elementary teacher-preparation programs.
NCTQ recommends states require at least 10 hours of targeted math courses for elementary teacher candidates, focusing on both content and pedagogy. Preparation programs should also work with local school districts to ensure their focus is relevant to needs they see in their classrooms, the 2025 report recommends.
“Too few teachers are being prepared and supported to teach math effectively,” said Shannon Holston, NCTQ’s chief of policy. “It’s not just, ‘Do you know how to do fractions?’ It’s, ‘Do you know how to teach fractions?’”
Teachers are like coaches, who must understand how concepts connect and weave together at a greater level and must strengthen skills of players with various strengths and roles, she said.
For example, a teacher may see a child write 1/2 +1/3 = 2/5 and recognize that the student had erred by reading both the numerators and denominators as whole numbers rather than recognizing each fraction as a discrete number. A skilled teacher might address this misunderstanding by showing the student where the fractions sit on a number line alongside whole numbers, Holston said.
“Strong math skills for students really do matter,” she said. “If we want our students to succeed, we need to make sure our teachers are prepared and supported to deliver high quality math instruction.”
