Better Mathematics Teaching: “QuaMath” Aims to Reach 10,000 Schools

The 2025 PISA study and before it the “IQB Trends in Student Achievement” report exposed major challenges vis-à-vis school students’ mathematical competencies. QuaMath focuses on the main linchpin for long-term improvement: the quality of mathematics teaching. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK) launched the program back in 2021, and it has been implemented in the federal states since 2023. Thanks to the second funding phase, QuaMath will in future reach schools in all 16 federal states. First evaluations show positive developments in continuing education and multiplier training. The impact on teaching and learning success will be analyzed in the further course of the program.

Over 3,000 schools and around 10,900 teachers already onboard

The aim of the program is to anchor mathematics-related continuing education and the development of mathematics teaching in schools permanently and at the structural level – not as a one-time measure, but as a continuous, research-based process. To this end, QuaMath systematically brings together science, common educational governance at the federal state level and school practice, and the project team is working to develop a shared vision of high-quality teaching. There are meanwhile 3,082 schools and 10,923 teachers in the first three of a total of eight planned school cohorts.

“After three years working on the project, we’ve already been very successful in developing a common idea of good mathematics teaching at all levels – from the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) and educational governance at the federal state level to the multipliers and teachers,” says QuaMath project lead Professor Susanne Prediger, who also teaches at the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN) and the Department of Mathematics at TU Dortmund University. “The data show that the continuing education measures are focusing more and more on the underlying structures of teaching quality. For a long-term change in teaching to occur, continuous subject-related collaboration among teachers is especially important. In the coming years of the QuaMath project, this collaboration will be data-based and develop even further.”

In addition, further multipliers will be trained during the second funding phase, continuing education and online options upgraded, and networking among schools strengthened. To measure the project’s impact step by step, down to the level of the school students, the workplan includes scientific monitoring. The goal is to reach up to 10,000 schools at some point in the future – or approximately one-third of all general education schools in Germany. This would make QuaMath the largest project of its kind in Germany to date. First results on the project’s impact on school students’ learning progress are expected at the end of 2027.

Background

Responsible for implementing the QuaMath project are the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) under the leadership of the Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN), together with 14 universities in the DZLM network, including TU Dortmund University, and the federal states. It covers elementary school as well as lower and upper secondary levels and early mathematics education. Qualified multipliers support teams of teachers within school networks. At the heart of the project are mathematics teaching that is comprehension-oriented, cognitively stimulating and learner-centered, and the continuous improvement of teaching quality in schools.

Further information on QuaMath

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