With support from Governor Kay Ivey and Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey, the Alabama Department of Education’s Office of Mathematics Improvement has led a statewide push to strengthen K-5 math instruction. By identifying and implementing evidence-based best practices, Alabama has made one of the largest improvements in fourth-grade math achievement in the country, rising from last place to 32nd nationally in just five years.
Turning State Education R&D Investments into Impact
With strategic investments in education R&D, the Alabama legislature bolstered math instruction for K-5 students across the state.
Aimed at strengthening math instruction, the 2022 Alabama Numeracy Act allocated $19.5 million to establish the Office of Mathematics Improvement (OMI), place dedicated math coaches in every elementary school, provide regional coordinators to support schools, and invest in professional learning for both teachers and principals. The Act also ensured wider availability of standards-aligned, high-quality instructional resources and required intensive support for students who are struggling.
The impact of these investments is clear:
+ 20 places
After three years of implementation, Alabama moved up 20 places on the Nation’s Report Card in fourth grade math – from last place to 32nd.
320000 students
Alabama’s 320,000 K-5 students are receiving effective, evidence-based math instruction.
How State R&D Investments Are Improving Math Outcomes in Alabama
In 2018, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey was laying the groundwork to improve the state’s literacy instruction and knew there needed to be a parallel effort for math. At the time, Alabama ranked last in the nation for fourth-grade math. That same year, Dr. Eric Mackey became Alabama’s Superintendent of Education and brought a bold vision to state policymakers through Alabama Achieves, a strategic plan that emphasized literacy, STEM, and especially evidence-based K-5 math instruction.
Under Dr. Mackey’s leadership, and with the support of Governer Ivey, Alabama has made remarkable gains in math. Between 2019 to 2024, the state jumped from last place to 32nd in the nation in fourth-grade math achievement and ranked first in Math Recovery nationwide.
“When I accepted the position of State Superintendent of Education, Alabama was at the bottom of the nation in fourth-grade math. We knew that had to change… and it has. Thanks to the vision of our State Board of Education, bold investments by the Alabama State legislature and Governor Kay Ivey, as well as a strong partnership with the Region 7 Comprehensive Center, we’ve put research into action. The Alabama Numeracy Act gave us the tools, math coaches in every elementary school, regional support, professional learning, and high-quality materials.
We’ve used those tools with purpose and now Alabama’s ranking has climbed 20 spots on the Nation’s Report Card. Our scores are higher now than before the pandemic. This progress isn’t by happenstance. It’s the result of strategic, research-driven work that delivers real results. Alabama is proving that when you invest in evidence-based practices and give educators the support they need, student achievement happens.”
Evidence-Based Practices
A key driver of these gains was the Alabama Numeracy Act. Passed in 2022, the Act sought to address persistently low math achievement across the state. The law marked a major shift toward evidence-based teaching practices, aiming to ensure that all students in grades K–5 develop strong foundational math skills and perform at or above grade level by the end of fifth grade.
Since the Act was passed, Alabama has seen dramatic improvements in math performance. On the Nation’s Report Card, Alabama surged from last place in fourth-grade math in 2019 to 32nd place in 2024, now scoring just below the national average. Alabama is also the only state where fourth-grade math scores have risen above pre-pandemic levels.
To fuel this transformation, the Act established the Office of Mathematics Improvement (OMI), is placing math coaches in every elementary school by the 2027-28 school year, and funded professional learning opportunities for teachers and principals. It also expanded access to high-quality, standards-aligned instructional materials and mandated intensive interventions for struggling students.
Research-Driven Partnerships
A cornerstone of the Numeracy Act is its requirement that schools implement evidence-based teaching practices that are identified by the state’s Elementary Mathematics Task Force. To achieve this end, the OMI partnered with the Region 7 Comprehensive Center (R7CC), part of a federally funded network of comprehensive centers that support state education agencies, to help translate research into practical strategies and help schools put them into action.
Together, the OMI helped high-need schools evaluate their schedules to increase time for core (Tier 1) and multi-tiered math instruction, and the R7CC analyzed research EdReports to identify high-quality instructional materials and strategies.
Through this work, the task force identified several best practices to strengthen K-5 math instruction statewide. The first four practices are listed below:
- Assessment and Feedback: Use data to evaluate student understanding and provide timely, targeted support to enhance student learning and close achievement gaps.
- Mathematical Language: Teach students the terminology, symbols and notation to interpret and communicate math concepts, describe mathematical ideas, and represent relationships and operations.
- Multimodal Instruction: Engage students through various formats, allowing students to interact with math ideas using different cognitive skills.
- Systematic Instruction: Structure lessons in a specific way to break down learning into clear steps and use consistent instructional practices across lessons and classrooms.
To ensure these practices were properly implemented, Alabama is deploying math coaches to work in every public Alabama elementary school to support educators directly.
How Coaches Enabled Alabama’s Early Math Revival
With funding from the Alabama Numeracy Act, the state will hire and train more than 840 elementary math coaches, placing one in every K-5 school in the state by the 2027-28 school year. These coaches, sourced from Alabama classrooms, received specialized training from the Alabama Math Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) at the Alabama Department of Education to ensure they could support evidence-based instructional practices aligned with the state’s vision for math achievement.
To further strengthen local implementation, the OMI oversaw a network of 26 regional math coordinators. These coordinators provided targeted support to coaches and school leaders, helping ensure consistency, fidelity, and alignment with the Numeracy Act’s goals, specifically around the rollout of the state’s four evidence-based instructional practices.
Alabama’s work to improve K-5 math instruction and outcomes is ongoing. The task force has five additional best practices that will be rolled out in coming years. The Alabama STEM Council is monitoring implementation and outcomes through the Alabama Numeracy Act Evaluation, a long-term study that tracks school- and student-level progress and assesses the initiative’s impact statewide.
Impact
With its comprehensive, math-focused legislation, Alabama has emerged as a national model for how state-level education R&D can drive measurable improvements in student outcomes.
Inspired by the success in elementary grades, plans are in place to expand this rigorous, research-based approach to middle and high school math through AMSTI.
Yet just as momentum is building, this progress may now be at risk. Alabama’s early progress under the Numeracy Act shows what’s possible when evidence-based practices are put into action, but recent federal funding cuts threaten the agencies and comprehensive centers that make this work possible. Alabama – and other states looking to follow its lead – will benefit from sustained federal investments to maintain progress and scale success in math education.