BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama has drawn national praise for recent gains in math since the pandemic, but a new report shows that many of the state’s youngest students are still struggling with foundational skills, highlighting the importance of school efforts called for in the Numeracy Act.
The data comes from the first annual report required under the 2022 Alabama Numeracy Act, a state law aimed at boosting foundational math skills in kindergarten through fifth grade. The report covers the 2023-24 school year, when many, but not all parts of the law were in place in public schools. It provides a baseline for future reporting.
The Alabama Department of Education prepared the report for lawmakers as required. It shows that 59% of nearly 300,000 K-5 students ended the year below expectations on math benchmark tests.
Those benchmark tests are given at the beginning, middle and end of the school year to track student progress.
The bulk of the Numeracy Act spells out how schools are supposed to step in when students struggle with math. But the report shows it’s not always easy to get that help to students who need it. One big issue: few fourth and fifth graders who qualified for summer math camp actually showed up.
Schools must offer summer math camps to students in kindergarten through fifth grade who fall short on benchmarks, but attendance isn’t required. According to the report, fewer than 1% of eligible fourth and fifth graders attended.
That’s a problem for school officials who say they’re being judged on student progress without the ability to make sure students get extra help.
The report suggests schools should start talking with parents earlier, using mid-year benchmark test results as a way to get their children signed up for summer math camps before it’s too late.
Benchmark tests are different from the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program, or ACAP. The ACAP is given only once each year, in the spring, to measure how much progress students have made from one grade to the next. The ACAP measures student proficiency on state standards. Last year, 42% of third graders, 38% of fourth graders and 37% of students in fifth grade reached proficiency on the ACAP.
While on the benchmark tests, given to students in kindergarten through fifth grade, every grade level had more than half of students testing below benchmarks:
- Kindergarten: 53%
- First grade: 56%
- Second grade: 61%
- Third grade: 60%
- Fourth grade: 59%
- Fifth grade: 62%
Looking at district-level data gives a clearer picture of where the problems are most severe. Not all school districts submitted their data to the ALSDE, but among those that reported results for kindergarten through second grade, some had especially high rates of students falling behind.
The map below shows the percentage of second graders not meeting the math benchmark. Click here if you are unable to see the map. The full list is in the report at the end of this article.
The report also tracks longer-term progress. Of the 28,723 students who scored in the lowest two categories on the third-grade ACAP in 2022, only 17% reached proficiency (levels 3 or 4) by fifth grade in 2024.
State lawmakers are keeping tabs on how the Numeracy Act is being rolled out through two other reports as well.
One report, published by a third-party evaluator, looks at the different pieces – math coaches and interventions, for example – and how well they’re being put into action at the school level as well as how efforts to improve math skills in the lowest-performing schools statewide. That report is one of a series of periodic evaluations posted on the Alabama STEM Council website.
Another, from the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, reviews how colleges are training future math teachers.
Both reports found the state is on track with implementation, although each pointed to areas that could use some work.
Cynthia McCarty chairs the Alabama STEM Council, which is charged with overseeing the implementation of the Numeracy Act. She said the Council is studying all of the reports, recognizing there are still a lot of foundational pieces being put in place.
“Accountability of a law as comprehensive as this one is a positive,” she said. McCarty was a member of the Alabama Board of Education when the law was passed in 2022.
The full ALSDE report is below.
Alabama Numeracy Act report 2023-24 school year by Trisha Powell Crain on Scribd