New report shows math, reading, science scores for some students down since 2019: 'Sobering'

(NEXSTAR) — School is back in session, bringing in the first wave of students born during the pandemic, dubbed “COVID kindergartners,” into classrooms nationwide. The students older than them, however, still seem to be trying to rebound from their pandemic-era learning disruptions.

The latest report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), shows that eighth- and twelfth-graders are still struggling in key subjects. According to the Nation’s Report Card, the average score across three categories in particular declined in 2024 compared to 2019: eighth-grade science and twelfth-grade math and reading. 

For twelfth-graders, 2024 math and reading scores are lower than the U.S. saw in 2005 and 1992, respectively. 

Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, called the results “sobering.” 

“The drop in overall scores coincides with significant declines in achievement among our lowest-performing students, continuing a downward trend that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in a Tuesday release.

Across the four regions of the country considered in the report — Northeast, Midwest, South, and West — only the West did not see a significant difference in eighth-grade science scores between 2019 and 2024. In the other three, scores declined. Twelfth-grade math scores declined for students in the South and West, while reading scores among the same age group dropped in the Midwest and South.

According to the NCES, roughly 23,000 eighth-graders were assessed from January to March 2024. Roughly 19,300 twelfth-graders were assessed in math, while 24,300 were evaluated for reading. The full report can be viewed here. 

“Today’s NAEP results confirm a devastating trend: American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a release Tuesday. 

Earlier this year, the NCES released data analyzing fourth- and eighth-grade math and reading scores. The report showed small gains in math for the younger students but no improvement for the older group. Reading scores dropped for both age levels. 

While the pandemic had an outsize impact on student achievement, experts said falling scores are part of a longer arc in education that cannot be attributed solely to COVID-19, school closures and related issues such as heightened absenteeism. Educators said potential underlying factors include children's increased screen time, shortened attention spans and a decline in reading longer-form writing both in and out of school.

The dip in reading scores in 2024 appeared alongside a shift in how English and language arts are taught in schools, with an emphasis on short texts and book excerpts, said Carol Jago, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. As a high school English teacher 20 years ago, Jago said it was common for her high school students to read 20 books over the course of a year. Now, some English classes are assigning just three books a year.

“To be a good reader, you have to have the stamina to stay on the page, even when the going gets tough,” Jago said. “You have to build those muscles, and we’re not building those muscles in kids.”

Meanwhile, the gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students was its widest ever among eighth-grade science students, reflecting growing inequality in the American school system. The achievement gap also widened in twelfth-grade math.

Christine Cunningham, senior vice president of STEM learning at the Museum of Science in Boston, noted, however, that the declines across subjects began well before schools closed in 2020.

“We don't know exactly what the cause of it is, but it would be incomplete to assume that if we hadn't had COVID, the score would not have gone down,” Cunningham said. “That's not what the data showed even before the pandemic.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.