“You [will] need a champion,” explains Micki Ray-Marinelli, chief academic officer for the Kentucky Department of Education, in reference to the key ingredients for improving math instruction across the state. In 2024, Kentucky’s champions were clear.
When Representative James Tipton and Senator Stephen West helped pass the Kentucky Numeracy Counts Act in a single legislative session, it wasn’t just another bill—it was a statement. Lawmakers, educators, and advocates alike realized what had been missing: a bold, comprehensive, statewide investment in math education.
The Kentucky Numeracy Counts Act is a sweeping effort designed to address math instruction at every level. It mandates early screening and diagnostics for students, expands professional learning opportunities for teachers, ensures access to high-quality instructional materials, and strengthens teacher preparation programs.
To ensure early identification and intervention of students struggling with math, the law requires district superintendents to select, adopt, and train teachers on the use of universal screeners and diagnostic assessments for K–3 mathematics. The Kentucky Department of Education has taken the lead in curating a list of approved screening assessments guided by rigorous selection criteria, prioritizing reliability and validity, and ensuring that diagnostics provide meaningful, actionable data for teachers and families. This has been a challenging process as there are not many quality options for math diagnostics (as compared to reading).
The other two key components of the legislation focus on building teacher capacity through professional learning and ensuring access to high-quality instructional materials, referred to in Kentucky as high-quality instructional resources (HQIR).
Kentucky is set to fund 40 districts with grants of $70,000 through a competitive grant process, allowing them to either purchase HQIR from the 2025 Approved K-12 High-Quality Instructional Resources for Mathematics list or invest in curriculum-based professional learning to support effective implementation of HQIR. State leaders emphasize that professional learning is just as critical as the materials themselves. “We have districts that may have purchased HQIR but didn’t have additional funds to develop a cohesive professional learning plan for implementation—how to roll those materials out, from unboxing to year two, year three and beyond,” explains Jennifer Fraley, director of mathematics education in the Office of Teaching and Learning.
Unlike literacy, where highly regarded professional development programs such as LETRS—an intensive, research-aligned literacy training program developed by Lexia®—provide a well-established professional learning framework, numeracy lacks a universally acknowledged equivalent. To bridge this gap, Kentucky has leveraged both statewide and national organizations to develop teaching academies and programs that give teachers access to research-based best practices.
One of the key initiatives is Carnegie Learning’s Patterns program, which currently supports 200 educators statewide. The program provides grade-appropriate professional learning, with third through fifth grade teachers focusing on fractions and middle school teachers on proportional reasoning. Additionally, Advance Kentucky, a statewide organization, is receiving funding to expand its work in bringing algebra instruction into middle schools, giving increased access to a course that is known as a gateway to calculus and to college.
Looking ahead, Kentucky is partnering with the Kentucky Center for Mathematics (KCM) to launch a two-year K–5 Teacher Academy focused on building deep math content knowledge and instructional skill. The Academy is partially modeled after LETRS and aims to provide similarly rigorous professional learning for elementary math teachers. It will bring together more than 1,000 teachers annually, offering a blended learning model that combines in-person training with asynchronous coursework. To complement this work, some districts will provide stipends for participating teachers, and teachers are eligible to pursue additional compensation through a separate program offered by participating local education cooperatives.
“The Numeracy Counts Act is not just an education bill. It’s a workforce development bill. It's an economic development bill. If our children aren’t competent in literacy and numeracy, they’ll have a very difficult time navigating the future world that's coming.”
Leaders, acknowledging the critical role that school administrators play in supporting math instruction, are also working on a similar academy for administrators. “When administrators understand what teachers are learning, they’re better equipped to support classroom instruction,” explains Dr. Fraley.
While the opportunities have yet to launch, educator interest is high. Over 400 educators have attended information sessions to learn more, and the state is working closely with KCM to increase awareness of professional learning opportunities through KCM’s annual conference and other statewide events.
The state is also prioritizing broad geographic representation in the initial rollout of these academies, ensuring that schools and districts from all regions are included. Leaders recognize that statewide reach is critical—not only to maximize impact but also to build a strong case for securing additional legislative funding to sustain and expand the work.
Kentucky’s approach is clear: progress over perfection. “We have the funding—let’s start, learn what we can, and then go back [to the legislature] once we have the data,” emphasizes Ms. Ray-Marinelli. By launching now and refining along the way, Kentucky aims to showcase early success, identify areas for improvement, and make a compelling case for continued investment in math education.
But what about upstream investments before candidates enter classrooms? Kentucky’s legislation recognizes the critical role that teacher preparation programs play in preparing teachers to provide effective math instruction. Beginning in the 2025–26 school year, all teacher preparation programs statewide will be required to prepare elementary teacher candidates to skillfully use HQIR in math, including those that support the needs of struggling students, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners.
To further strengthen teacher preparation, the state is also shifting its licensure assessment to one it hopes will better assess whether teachers are prepared for the classroom—the Praxis 7001. Additionally, the state is collaborating with teacher preparation programs to pilot and implement a math-specific observation and feedback rubric for teacher preparation. By refining both instructional materials and assessment systems, Kentucky is ensuring that new teachers enter the classroom better prepared to deliver high-quality math instruction from day one.
None of this would have been possible without a legislative champion to push the work forward. “This could have been cut down,” Ms. Ray-Marinelli admits. “But we all saw the need for numeracy, and it was both the success of Read to Succeed and Representative Tipton’s personal passion in trying to improve student outcomes in both literacy and numeracy. He knows the evidence basis, and he wants to support Kentucky educators at large.”
Kentucky’s approach is a blueprint, proving that the right policies, backed by the right leadership, can promote promising practices and hopefully real change for students.