As states seek to improve foundational math instruction, at least four have passed new mandates that require schools to spend more time teaching the subject.
The new policies—adopted by Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Maryland—require schools to commit 60 minutes a day or 300 minutes a week to teaching math. The requirements vary by state, applying to elementary, upper-elementary, or K-8 students.
The shift aims to address concerns that some schools spend insufficient time on the subject, exacerbating lower student achievement and leaving little room in the schedule for addressing the needs of struggling students while also covering core lessons. States have also found wide variation in how much time different districts—or even schools within the same district—spend on math, contributing to inequality.
But some schools have found it challenging to shift their schedules to meet the mandates. States’ math efforts follow a wave of new related laws that require schools to align their literacy instruction with evidence-based practices, which led schools to expand time for English/language arts classes and targeted intervention blocks.
Maryland’s state board of education voted recently to delay the implementation for its minimum math instructional requirement for elementary and middle schools from the 2027-28 school year to 2028-29. The change came after parents and educators complained that shifting middle school schedules—which are typically structured around uniform class periods—would crowd out time for arts education and other electives.
The state will use the extra year to develop sample schedules, provide technical assistance, and help districts compare strategies for rethinking their school days, Lyndsey Brightful, the director of mathematics at the Maryland education department, said at an Aug. 25 meeting.
“We recognize that without 60 minutes [of required math instruction], we are really asking teachers to cut a portion of the lesson or to shorten a portion of the lesson, all of which will impact student experience and outcomes,” she said.
Why states have mandated more math instruction
Since Alabama passed its influential Alabama Numeracy Act in 2022, 23 states have passed laws or implemented new policies related to math education, according to an Education Week tracker.
Those changes come as schools confront slumps in math achievement. Results from the 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trend show improvement in math scores for 9-year-old students, though results still remain below pre-pandemic levels. Math scores for 13-year-olds stalled, remaining far below their highest levels reached in 2012.
Advocates for overhauling math instruction say many middle school students’ struggles can be traced back to incomplete understanding of foundational topics taught in elementary school. Those problems snowball as math concepts, which build on each other sequentially, grow more complex.
State policies aim to address those concerns at the root by improving instruction starting in pre-K or kindergarten.
Minimum instructional time requirements, included in four of those policies, are less common than requirements to regularly screen young students for gaps in math learning, adopted by 14 states; and requirements to improve math courses in teacher-preparation programs, adopted by nine states.
But better-trained teachers, more data on students, and higher-quality curricula aren’t enough if schedules don’t allow teachers to meaningfully teach content and reinforce concepts students may not understand, said Lindsey Henderson, the senior policy director for math at ExcelinEd, an organization that advocates for math education reforms.
In a 2018 national survey, K-3 teachers said they spent a daily average of 89 minutes on English/language arts and 57 minutes on math.
At the elementary level, teachers can meet math instructional requirements by combining focused math-class time with cross-curricular lessons that blend math with other subjects, like science or social studies, Henderson said.
“The resource that you are often short on as a teacher is time,” she said. “There are lots of ways that you can use the time that you have in effective ways.”
There’s no harm in states taking time to get new math mandates right, Henderson said.
Districts struggle to expand math instruction in middle school
To be sure, many schools already meet the recommended 60 minutes of core math instruction, whether or not their state requires it.
Maryland’s districts have struggled the most to adjust middle school math schedules, state officials said. Of the state’s 24 districts, five required less than an hour of daily math instruction at the middle school level, two had variations among schools ranging from 45 to 80 minutes, six required more than an hour including intervention courses, and 11 required at least an hour of core instruction alone, state data show.
But some districts have sought to meet the time mandate without ensuring the additional instruction is meaningful and without protecting time for other subjects and electives, Rachel McGrain, the executive director of the Arts Education in Maryland Schools Alliance, told the state board in August.
“I urge you to be very careful of the message being sent about the importance of all subjects … including the arts,” she said.
Because the state has no uniform middle school schedule, some schools have six class periods and some have seven. That has led to some difficulty in shifting time to expand math instruction, McGrain said.
In one school, teachers reported that students were required to spend half their art-class time on computers completing independent, virtual math lessons, she said. In another middle school, McGrain said, teachers reported that all educators, regardless of subject, were required to spend a day a week teaching math.
McGrain suggested the state should require approval of school schedules, provide waivers from the time requirement, or make the time element a recommendation instead of a mandate.
But state board members stressed the importance of a clear, uniform expectation. Another year of planning and technical assistance should help schools implement new schedules with fewer concerns, they said.
Next, the state must support teachers to ensure they use that additional time effectively, Brightful stressed at the August meeting.
“The minutes alone aren’t it,” she said. “We need the time, but we have to use the time in a valuable way.”
