Newly released data from a crucial national test revealed historically low scores in two major subjects for 12th graders across the country, further emphasizing that U.S. students have struggled to recover academically after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Testing data released Tuesday from the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed that, overall, students’ scores were lower in 12th grade math and reading and 8th grade science than the last time students were tested in 2019. With 38% of students scoring below basic in 8th grade science, students’ science scores were the lowest they’ve been since 2009, while students’ scores in 12th grade math and reading were the lowest they’ve ever been since the tests were first administered — 1992 for reading and 2005 for math. The data did not include a state-by-state breakdown, but California is expected to release its own standardized testing data next month.
The assessment, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, tested around 23,000 eighth-grade students from 600 schools across the country from January to March 2024 to measure their knowledge of key science topics. The assessment also tested about 19,300 twelfth-grade students from 1,500 schools in math and 24,300 students from 1,500 schools in reading.
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The decline in scores echoed testing data released earlier this year and revealed a 4-point drop for 8th graders in science and a 3-point decline for 12th graders in math and reading.
NAEP achievement levels — basic, proficient and advanced — are performance standards that represent what students should know and be able to do but are not intended to reflect grade-level performance expectations.
The California School Boards Association said in a statement that the scores, along with California’s most recent scores, suggest that “stagnant outcomes should be expected,” especially for the most vulnerable students.
“Year after year, California students continue to struggle in reading and math. The persistent nature of achievement gaps in one of the wealthiest societies in recorded history is a disgrace for California’s state leaders and a tragedy for its students,” said Vernon Billy, the CEO and Executive Director of the California School Boards Association. “The state has failed to fully own this crisis. Local school boards carry the burden of trying to triage the situation under political and funding duress, while the state sputters along without a clear, coherent plan that details what the state is going to do differently at its agencies to support the efforts of local educational agencies to close the achievement gap.”
In a statement, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the national scores confirm a “devastating trend.”
“American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12. At a critical juncture when students are about to graduate and enter the workforce, military, or higher education, nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading,” McMahon said. “If America is going to remain globally competitive, students must be able to read proficiently, think critically, and graduate equipped to solve complex problems. We owe it to them to do better.”
According to the Nation’s Report Card, at the basic level for 8th grade science, students likely can demonstrate that reproduction is an essential part of population survival, while students at the proficient level can likely describe the function of body systems and students at the advanced level can use the structures of organisms to identify specific adaptions of organisms and infer how these adaptions help organisms survive. Students who score below the basic level likely cannot recall that plants need sunlight to grow and reproduce, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
The 2024 scores revealed that less than a third (31%) of 8th-grade students nationwide scored at or above NAEP proficient on the science assessment — the benchmark goal for the assessment — while more than a third (38%) of 8th-graders scored below NAEP basic on science, the highest percentage of students since 2009.
For 12th graders, just 22% scored at or above the proficient level in math and 35% in reading. Both subjects also saw the highest percentage of students ever score below basic in reading and math, with 45% of 12th graders who scored below the basic level in math and 32% in reading.
Scores declined for all but the highest-achieving students, pointing to a large and growing disparity between the lowest and highest-achieving students — with widening gaps between the highest and lowest performers in all subjects except 12th grade reading and the highest achievement gap yet in 12th grade math.
The 2024 scores also revealed a re-emerging gap between male and female students for 8th grade science scores, with male students outscoring female students by 2 points — a gap present in previous years but not in 2019.
The 2024 assessment also surveyed students on their educational experience and postsecondary plans. The results revealed an increase in student absenteeism among twelfth-grade students, with about 31% of students from the math and reading assessment reporting missing 3 or more days of school in the month prior to taking the assessment, compared to about 26% in 2019.
Students’ confidence in their reading and math skills also declined — 36% of twelfth-graders reported having a high level of confidence in their math knowledge, down from 38% in 2019, and 71% reported having a high confidence in their reading knowledge, compared to 73% in 2019.
Less eighth graders also reported having an interest and enjoyment in science compared to 2019 or a high confidence in their science skills.
Overall, only about a third of the high school seniors who took the math and reading assessment in 2024 — now sophomores in college — were considered academically prepared for college, down from about 37% in 2019.
But the test results showed an uptick in percentage of 12th graders who reported being accepted to a four-year college compared to 2019, with about 53% of 12th graders in 2024 who reported being accepted to a four-year college compared to 51% in 2019.
Former North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue, who chairs the National Assessment Governing Board — which oversees the assessment — said the test results reveal that students need more support to succeed in school across core subjects and grades.
“If policymakers and education leaders fail to act now, students — and employers — will feel the impact of declining skills and knowledge gaps as the global workforce becomes more and more competitive,” said Perdue. “That bodes badly for them and badly for our country.”