Student Test Scores Remain Flat or Behind Pre-COVID Levels, Assessments Find

Ahead of the Nation’s Report Card release early next year, state assessment reports and researchers suggest disappointment.

A third grade teacher talks with students about their COVID-19 pandemic-related fears on the first day of in-person learning for five days a week at Stark Elementary School in Stamford, Conn., on March 10, 2021. John Moore/Getty Images

Math and reading scores across the nation continue to decline or remain stagnant nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic stalled classroom learning, recent state assessment results indicate.

Most states have released their annual report card summaries for the 2023–2024 academic year. One of the latest, New York’s, shows that the average reading/English language arts proficiency rate among public school students in third through eighth grade was 46 percent, a 2 percent drop from the year prior. In math, the average proficiency rate for the same grade levels was 54 percent, a 2 percent increase from the 2022–2023 academic year.