Overview

Why does NCTQ focus on Elementary Math?

With the Teacher Prep Review, NCTQ evaluates elementary teacher preparation programs against research-based standards that are proven to have a substantial impact on teacher effectiveness and student learning outcomes.

Math matters. Higher math scores for elementary-age students tend to translate to higher earnings as adults.1 In fact, math scores predict future earnings better than reading scores. Early math skills are also a strong predictor of success in other subjects, like reading and science, and even grade retention from kindergarten through eighth grade.2 Students need opportunities to develop a strong foundation in the elementary years. Due to the cumulative nature of math, students who struggle early on may never catch up.

Unfortunately, many elementary students in the United States do not receive adequate math instruction. Nearly one-quarter of fourth graders, over 850,000 children in the U.S.,3 lack basic math knowledge and skills, such as the ability to locate numbers on a number line or subtract multidigit whole numbers.4

Improving math achievement for students starts with ensuring that their teachers have the knowledge and skills they need to be effective. Teacher preparation programs are well situated to play a key role in solving the math problem by providing aspiring teachers with the time they need to develop deep content knowledge of the math they'll teach and the pedagogical knowledge of how to teach it.

latest findings

2025 Teacher Prep Review: Solving for Math Success

In NCTQ's latest examination of over 1,100 elementary teacher prep programs, we find most programs do not provide teacher candidates with sufficient time to develop math content knowledge. This is especially true of graduate prep programs.

Read the brief
%

Grad programs aren't measuring up.

84% of elementary graduate programs earn a grade of F for failing to provide enough math instruction.

National Snapshot

The Teacher Prep Review: Elementary Math standard assesses the extent to which elementary teacher preparation programs provide adequate course time to build aspiring teachers' math content knowledge and pedagogy.

The 2025 findings show that most undergraduate programs devote enough time to mathematics, but too many fail to provide adequate instruction on essential math content. By stark contrast, the average graduate program dedicates less than 14 hours of instructional time—less than one course credit—to math content. These differences are clear in the distribution of program grades and are alarming when considering that both types of programs are preparing candidates for the same job.

2025 Elementary Mathematics grades for undergraduate and graduate programs

Undergraduate programs

Graduate programs

34% of undergraduate programs provide an adequate number of instructional hours of mathematics content.

71% of undergraduate programs provide an adequate number of instructional hours of mathematics pedagogy.

3% of graduate programs provide an adequate number of instructional hours of mathematics content.

52% of graduate programs provide an adequate number of instructional hours of mathematics pedagogy.

See grades for institutions in your state, as well as other findings related to teacher preparation programs in the 2025 Teacher Prep Review: Solving for Math Success report.

Endnotes
  1. Werner, K., Acs, G., & Blagg, K. (2024). Comparing the long-term impacts of different child well-being improvements. Urban Institute.
    https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2024-03/Comparing_the_Long-Term_Impacts_of_Different_Child_Well-Being_Improvements.pdf

  2. Claessens, A., & Engel, M. (2013). How important is where you start? Early mathematics knowledge and later school success. Teachers College Record, 115(6), 1—29.

  3. This figure represents 24% of the fourth grade students in 2022. Data from "Table 203.10. Enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools, by level and grade: Selected years, fall 1980 through fall 2031," by the National Center for Education Statistics, 2023, Digest of Education Statistics.
    https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d23/tables/dt23_203.10.asp.

  4. National Assessment of Educational Progress. (2025). NAEP mathematics: National trends and student skills. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reports/mathematics/2024/g4_8/national-trends/?grade=4

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