The Florida Chamber Foundation has released its newest research report, Aligning Math Education to Workforce Needs: Insights From Florida’s Employers, highlighting the urgent need for action in closing math education gaps in Florida. Growing Florida to a Top 10 global GDP means making the Florida 2030 Blueprint goals a reality. One set of goals involve strengthening Florida’s talent supply and education.
As Florida focuses on talent and job growth, a major factor in achieving this goal is ensuring Florida’s workforce possesses the essential math skills to meet the demands of an evolving job market. Aligning Math Education to Workforce Needs: Insights From Florida’s Employers is a complementary follow-up to the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Math Matters: Bridging Gaps for Florida’s Future Workforce report (released in March 2025) and combines data and analyses from statewide focus groups and surveys with business leaders, educators, and parents. This new report provides recommendations for supplementing curriculum with practical, “real world” applications, early exposure to math-intensive careers, and enhanced industry-education partnerships to improve workforce alignment and address resource disparities.
“Our findings suggest a significant, yet solvable, misalignment between the skills taught in Florida’s K-12 classrooms and the skills required by Florida’s employers,” says Dr. Keith Richard, Vice President of Research at the Florida Chamber Foundation and principal author of this report. “Our education system must continue evolving to bridge this gap. By aligning curriculum with real-world applications and strengthening partnerships between educators and industry, we can ensure students are equipped with the practical math skills needed for long-term career success.”
The findings of this report highlight the important role of math proficiency in preparing Florida’s workforce for a dynamic and competitive economy. From general, to technical, to leadership positions, math proficiency was consistently identified as essential for job performance, problem-solving, and decision-making.
“This report is a call to action. While 65% of Florida’s eighth graders are math proficient, there’s still ground to cover,” shared Bemetra Simmons, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Partnership, Tampa Bay’s premier economic development leader, within the report. “Every percentage point represents a student’s future and our region’s economic strength. Let’s use these findings to drive collaboration among educators, business leaders, and policymakers—building a talent pipeline rooted in strong math skills to secure Florida’s future.”
The math education challenges surfaced in this report mirror the groundbreaking concerns raised in the Florida Chamber Foundation’s 2016 report, From Excuses to Excellence: Another Call to Action for Job Creators and Employers to Sustain Educational Accountability, Continue Boosting Student Learning and Close the Skills Gap. That earlier report was a pivotal moment in highlighting the urgent need to improve reading outcomes and early learning across the state. Now, nearly a decade later, the same call to action is being issued—this time for math education outcomes.
This research and its recommendations will be addressed at the 2025 Florida Chamber Foundation’s Education and Workforce Summit, commonly known as the “Learners to Earners Summit”, on June 24 in Tampa. Summit information is available HERE.
The full report can be accessed at flchamber.com/matheducation
The Florida Chamber Foundation is committed to student success and workforce readiness through research, advocacy, and collaboration. For questions about this research or to learn how you can get involved with ongoing efforts, contact Dr. Keith Richard at krichard@flchamber.com or 850-521-1231.