“American students is testing at historic lows across all of K-12"; "damning new lows in math"
- The end of childhood
- 19 hours ago
- 2 min read
Sept 9, 2025, NY Post: US test scores hit damning new lows in math, reading since COVID school closures, ‘nation’s report card’ shows
The writing’s on the wall — if you can read it.
Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992.
National test scores have dropped in several key areas since the COVID-19 pandemic.Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com
Average 12th-grade NAEP reading scores for reading were down three points in the past five years.Donald Pearsall / NY Post Design
The math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency, the lowest point since the current test began in 2005.
“American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12,” McMahon said in response to the scores, which were extracted from tests administered to thousands of students in early 2024.
“Nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading,” she went on. “The achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading.”
The average score on the 12th-grade math and reading assessments dropped three points from 2019. Among fourth-graders, the average math score was also three points lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, while eight-graders saw their average decline eight points from five years earlier. Average scores on the fourth- and eighth-grade reading exam dropped by five points between 2019 and 2024.
Average NAEP math scores for 12th-graders have also declined.
“These results are sobering,” National Center for Education Statistics Acting Commissioner Matthew Soldner said in a statement. “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.”
“Among our nation’s high school seniors, we’re now seeing a larger percentage of students scoring below the NAEP Basic achievement level in mathematics and reading than in any previous assessment.”
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