American Students’ Reading Scores Decline, Show Little Improvement in Math

‘Declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,’ one official said.

Students leave an elementary school in Seattle on March 11, 2020. John Moore/Getty Images

American students are performing poorly in reading and math skills, failing to regain lost ground during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests administered to fourth graders and eighth graders.

“The most notable challenges evident in the 2024 data are in reading comprehension. Reading scores dropped in both fourth and eighth grades since 2022, continuing declines first reported in 2019, before the pandemic,” said a Jan. 29 statement from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which administers the tests.