Across the United States, the numbers are moving in the wrong direction. National exams that once showed slow but steady progress now capture a slide in reading, math, and science that has left high school seniors with the weakest scores in decades. The trend is not a blip tied only to COVID disruptions, but a long arc of stagnation and decline that is reshaping debates about what schools owe students and what test scores really tell the public.
Understanding why scores are falling, and what that signals about the future workforce and democracy, requires looking beyond a single culprit. The data point to intertwined forces, from policy whiplash and classroom practice to screen-saturated childhoods and widening inequality, and they also reveal that the damage is not evenly distributed.
The scale of the slide in America’s “report card”
National results show that high school reading and math performance has fallen to levels not seen in roughly twenty years, even as districts have poured new money into recovery efforts. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card, twelfth graders in 2024 recorded sharp drops in both subjects compared with 2019, with scores in math and reading sinking to the lowest point in the test’s modern history for that grade. Analysts note that these declines are occurring even though, as one review put it, “Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below proficiency,” a pattern visible in the latest Nation’s Report Card results.
The downturn is not limited to the end of high school. Earlier grades have also seen erosion in core skills, with recent national data showing that fourth and eighth graders lost ground in reading and math compared with pre-pandemic benchmarks. A philanthropic analysis noted that a prediction of continued declines in fourth and eighth grade performance “held true,” with new NAEP results confirming that scores in both subjects remain below 2019 levels and that these indicators are proving “difficult to move,” according to a review of NAEP trends. Together, these snapshots show a system where students are entering high school behind and leaving it with weaker skills than their predecessors.
Why the downturn predates the pandemic
Although COVID closures and quarantines clearly disrupted learning, the national testing record shows that the slide began well before the virus arrived. Researchers who have tracked NAEP over time point out that twelfth grade reading scores hit a recent peak in 2009, then fell significantly over the following decade, while twelfth grade math peaked around 2013 before declining as well. By the time the pandemic hit, performance in both subjects had already been drifting downward, a pattern detailed in analyses of Twelfth grade trends that emphasize how long this erosion has been underway.
More recent work has reinforced that message, arguing that the pandemic accelerated and exposed weaknesses rather than creating them from scratch. A detailed review of national and state data concluded that test scores, particularly in math, had generally been marching upward for a few decades until around 2013, then flattened and began to decline well before COVID. That same analysis, which drew on two detailed studies by Sean Reardon and James Wyckoff, stressed that “Declines began before COVID-19” and that the pandemic layered new harm on top of existing problems, a point underscored in coverage of Test score declines.
How the pandemic deepened an existing crisis
Even if the downturn started earlier, COVID still left a deep imprint on student learning. The twelfth graders who took NAEP in 2024 were in eighth grade when schools abruptly shifted to remote instruction, and many cycled through hybrid schedules, quarantines, and staffing shortages during critical years for algebra and complex reading. National officials have highlighted that this cohort’s scores are not only lower than in 2019 but also below the previous low points in the test’s history, a sign that the pandemic’s timing hit a particularly vulnerable group, as summarized in explanations from the NAEP governing board.
Educators and researchers also point to the way COVID magnified existing inequities. Students in low income communities were more likely to face limited broadband, crowded housing, and inconsistent access to live instruction, while families with more resources could hire tutors or form learning pods. A congressional statement on the latest scores warned that “Today’s NAEP ( National Assessment of Educational Progress ) scores continue to show a devastating decline in math, science, and reading,” and argued that if the country fails to address these gaps, “our global standing and economic competitiveness will be in jeopardy,” a stark assessment from House leaders responding to the National Assessment of.
Policy whiplash and the retreat from test-based accountability
Beyond the pandemic, shifts in education policy have altered how seriously schools treat standardized tests. After the federal No Child Left Behind law expired in 2015, states gained more flexibility and the intensity of test-based accountability eased in many places. One literacy expert argued that “Number one is, there’s been a decline in focus on test-based accountability since the No Child Left Behind act expired in 2015,” suggesting that when pressure to raise scores faded, so did some of the urgency around systematic reading instruction, a critique shared in a televised discussion of reading declines.
At the same time, debates over standards have sometimes obscured the underlying instructional work. Some commentators initially blamed tougher benchmarks for NAEP drops, arguing that higher expectations were discouraging students. Others countered that “High standards are not to blame for NAEP declines,” noting that high school seniors who do not reach the Basic level on NAEP likely cannot make inferences about a reading passage or apply fundamental math concepts, and that the real issue is whether classrooms are consistently teaching those skills. That argument, laid out in a defense of rigorous expectations, stresses that strategies like high quality curricula and tutoring are beginning to show promise and that the focus should remain on helping more students reach Basic proficiency.
Classroom practice, curriculum, and the complexity problem
Inside classrooms, the way reading and math are taught has also come under scrutiny. Analysts of NAEP data have noted that the steepest declines are concentrated among students in the bottom performance tier, suggesting that struggling readers and mathematicians are not getting the sustained, explicit instruction they need. One review of text complexity argued that this deterioration “isn’t sudden but represents a steady deterioration over the past decade,” and linked it to a mix of factors, including the kinds of books and passages students encounter, the methodologies teachers use, and broader societal changes, a diagnosis laid out in a critique of misunderstanding text complexity.
Math instruction faces parallel questions. As districts cycled through different curricula and approaches, from traditional sequences to integrated math and back again, students often experienced fragmented progressions that left gaps in algebra and problem solving. National data show that while eighth grade science scores held steady between 2015 and 2019, math and reading did not, and that the latest results confirm a broader pattern of decline even as some subjects remain “nearly as high as ever,” according to a detailed look at subject specific performance. The contrast suggests that where instruction is coherent and cumulative, scores can hold, but where it is inconsistent, students are more likely to falter.
Screens, attention, and the changing childhood
Outside school walls, the texture of childhood has shifted in ways that educators say are impossible to ignore. Teachers report that students arrive in class with shorter attention spans, less stamina for sustained reading, and more difficulty persisting through multi step problems. Some point directly to children’s increased screen time, arguing that constant access to smartphones, social media apps like TikTok and Instagram, and streaming platforms has reshaped how young people process information. In national coverage of the latest scores, Educators cited “children’s increased screen time, shortened attention spans and a decline in reading for pleasure” as potential underlying factors, warning that these habits affect learning “in and out of school,” a concern captured in interviews with Educators.
Experts also emphasize that the pandemic intensified these patterns. With schools closed, many students spent months learning through screens for class and then turning to the same devices for entertainment, blurring the line between academic and recreational use. One analysis noted that “While the pandemic had an outsize impact on student achievement, experts said falling scores are part of a longer arc in education,” and that the combination of disrupted schooling and digital distraction has made it harder for students to rebuild foundational skills, a dynamic described in reporting on how While the learning environment changed.
Who is being left furthest behind
The national averages mask deep and growing divides. Analysts warn that the steepest drops are concentrated among students who were already struggling, including those from low income families, Black and Latino students, and young people with disabilities. A detailed commentary on NAEP trends stressed that “This decline among students in the bottom performance tier isn’t sudden,” but rather reflects a decade of compounding disadvantages, from less experienced teachers and fewer advanced courses to higher exposure to school closures and community stress, as outlined in the discussion of bottom tier declines.
Voices inside and outside government have framed the stakes in stark terms. Economist Eric Hanushek described the situation bluntly, saying “The uncomfortable truth is that American students have been significantly losing ground for more than a decade,” and warning that the long term economic cost of lower skills could be enormous. He also argued that schools have not done enough to build students’ “muscles” for sustained reading and problem solving, a critique that aligns with concerns about weaker text complexity and fragmented math instruction, as reported in coverage of American students.
What the scores do and do not measure
Even as the numbers raise alarms, experts caution against treating test scores as a complete portrait of learning. NAEP is designed as a low stakes sample that tracks broad trends, not as a diagnostic tool for individual students, and it focuses on reading, math, and a few other subjects rather than the full range of skills young people need. A national summary of the latest results noted that high school seniors who do not reach the Basic level on NAEP likely struggle to make inferences from a passage or apply math concepts to real world problems, but it also emphasized that some strategies, such as targeted tutoring and curriculum reforms, are beginning to show progress in specific districts, as described in arguments about maintaining High standards.
At the same time, the scores are hard to dismiss. A national podcast from USA Today’s The Excerpt, hosted by Dana Taylor, framed the latest NAEP release as evidence that “America’s high school seniors are falling behind,” and walked through how the decline in math and reading affects college readiness, job prospects, and civic participation. The conversation underscored that while tests do not capture creativity or resilience, they do provide a consistent yardstick for core academic skills that employers and colleges still expect, a point made in the USA Today Excerpt discussion of the results.
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