In 2019, right before the COVID-19 crisis, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – commonly referred to as The Nation’s Report Card – revealed that only 40 percent of 4th graders and 34 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level in Math, a level that represents “solid academic performance.” Only 8 percent of fourth graders and 10 percent of eighth graders performed at the Advanced level. These next set of numbers should terrify every single American who values our continued democracy. Only 26 percent of 4th grade students, 23 percent of 8th grade students, and 23 percent of 12th grade students were Proficient in Civics, and only 19 percent of 4th grade students, 14 percent of 8th grade students, and 11 percent of 12th grade students were Proficient in U.S. History.
The Basic NAEP level means that the student demonstrated “partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills that are fundamental for proficient work at each grade.” Only 69 percent of 12th grade students achieved the Basic level in reading and only 58 percent of them achieved the Basic level in mathematics. Only 43 percent of them achieved the Basic level in U.S. History.
Breaking the numbers down by race is absolutely devastating. In 4th grade math, there was a 32-point score gap between white and black students (51 percent to 19 percent) and a 25-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (51 percent to 26 percent). In 8th grade math, there was a 31-point score gap between white and black students (44 percent to 13 percent) and a 24-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (44 percent to 20 percent). Only 37 percent of 4th graders and 36 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level in reading. Only 9 percent of fourth graders and 4 percent of eighth graders performed at the Advanced level. In 4th grade reading, there was a 27-point score gap between white and black students (47 percent to 20 percent) and a 24-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (47 percent to 23 percent). In 8th grade reading, there was a 27-point score gap between white and black students (45 percent to 18 percent) and a 22-point score gap between white and Hispanic students (45 percent to 23 percent).
That was then. You just won’t believe what these numbers are post-pandemic.
In October 2022, the NAEP released its first results since the COVID crisis began. Even though the federal government sent schools $190 billion in pandemic relief funds – to be used for interventions like increased tutoring, expanded summer school, and after-school programs – the math scores of fourth and eighth grade students showed the steepest decline in the history of the assessment. Just 26 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level in Math, a drop of eight percentage points, and only 36 percent of 4th graders performed at or above the Proficient level in Math, a drop of five percentage points. In reading, only 33 percent of 4th graders and 31 percent of 8th graders performed at or above the Proficient level.
And the news just keeps getting worse. Even though the evidence was already clear that COVID-19 school closures were disastrous for our children at the time, we now know that instead of catching up, our kids are continuing to fall farther behind. In a depressing report that was released in July 2023, NWEA – a research and assessment methodology organization – called this phenomenon “education’s long COVID.” The report revealed:
In nearly all grades, achievement gains during 2022–23 fell short of prepandemic trends, which stalled progress toward pandemic recovery.
Significant achievement gaps persist at the end of 2022–23, and the average student will need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months in math.
Comparing across race/ethnicity groups, achievement gains for all students lagged prepandemic trends in 2022–23. Marginalized students remain the furthest from recovery.
Reporting from ProPublica backed that assessment up: “An analysis of data from about 80 percent of public schools in the country has found that, in districts that went remote for 90 percent or more of 2020-21, the decline in math scores represented the loss of two-thirds of a year, nearly double the drop in districts that were remote for less than 10 percent of the year. And these numbers don’t take into account the millions of students who have vanished from the rolls entirely since the extended hiatus during which the norm of attending school eroded.”
As usual, minority children were hit the hardest, for one because school districts with larger populations of black and Hispanic students were less likely to have access to in-person learning. In fact, the progress made in closing the educational gap over the past two decades was essentially wiped out. An economist at Stanford, Eric Hanushek, put it this way: “This cohort of students is going to be punished throughout their lifetime.”
The latest Nation’s Report Card assessing students in 4th and 8th grade reading and math was released on January 29, 2025, and the nightmare continues. Although public schools had pretty much spent all the $190 billion in federal emergency funding they received from the COVID-era, there was no improvement in eighth grade math (although fourth graders got a two-point rebound after dropping five points between 2019 and 2022) and reading scores took a beating across the board. The number of eighth graders reading below the base line is now the largest in assessment history, and the number of fourth graders reading below the base line is the highest it’s been in 20 years.
Then in September 2025, the results of high school seniors were released, revealing record lows in reading and math. A third of high-school seniors don’t have basic reading skills and almost half can’t do basic math. The average math score of 12th graders was the lowest since the current test began in 2005 and reading scores were roughly 10 points worse than when that exam was introduced in 1992.