The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), commonly known as “The Nation’s Report Card,” recently released its latest mathematics and reading test scores for fourth and eighth graders – the first full score report released since 2019 due to testing disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s NAEP tested over 450,000 fourth and eighth graders across 53 states and jurisdictions and 26 urban districts. Administered since 1990, it is the only test taken by a nationally representative sample of students and representative samples of students in each state, and is designed to measure student achievement – in the words of NAEP, what students “know and are able to do.”
Consistent with expectations, NAEP scores were not good.
- The latest report marks the largest score declines in NAEP mathematics at both grades 4 and 8 since the first NAEP assessment in 1990.
- In reading, the average fourth grade score was lower than all previous assessment years going back to 2005, and not significantly different than scores in 1992.
- Average eighth grade scores were lower than all previous assessment years dating to 1998 — and not significantly higher than scores in 1992.
Mathematics
Average eighth grade math score fell from 282 in 2019 to 274 in 2022 – a decline of 8 points
- 38% of eighth-graders performed below NAEP Basic, compared to 31% in 2019
- 35% of fourth-graders performed at NAEP Basic – no change from 2019; 20% at NAEP Proficient compared to 24% in 2019; 7% at NAEP Advanced compared to 10%
- Scores decreased in a vast majority of states/jurisdictions and in participating urban districts, and the percentage of students who performed below NAEP Basic increased in a majority of states/jurisdictions and in participating urban districts
- 51 states/jurisdictions saw average scores decline and 2 states/jurisdictions had no significant change
- 48 states/jurisdictions had the percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic rise; 5 states/jurisdictions saw no significant change
- 22 of 26 participating urban districts saw average scores decline and percentage of students performing below NAEP rise; 4 saw no significant change
- Scores decreased across nearly all demographics (including achievement level, racial/ethnic groups, and gender):
- Scores decreased across all achievement levels of students (lower-, middle-, and higher-performing). The magnitude of score declines was not significantly different for lower-performing students (10th and 25th percentiles) than higher-performing students (75th and 90th percentiles), except that the score decline at the 75th percentile was higher than the decline for students at the 10th percentile
- Average scores declined across all racial/ethnic groups except for American Indian/Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander (no significant changes)
- Average scores declined for both male and female students
Average fourth grade math score fell by 5 points, from 241 to 236
- 25% of fourth-graders performed below NAEP Basic, compared to 19% in 2019
- 39% of fourth-graders performed at NAEP Basic compared to 40% in 2019; 25% at NAEP Proficient compared to 32%; 8% at NAEP Advanced compared to 9%
- Scores decreased in a vast majority of states/jurisdictions and in participating urban districts, and the percentage of students who performed below NAEP Basic increased in a majority of states/jurisdictions and in participating urban districts
- 43 states/jurisdictions saw average scores decline and percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic rise; 10 states/jurisdictions saw no significant change
- 23 of 26 participating urban districts saw average scores decline and 3 saw no significant change; 24 of 26 participating urban districts saw their percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic rise; 2 had no significant change
- Scores decreased across nearly all demographics (including achievement level, racial/ethnic groups, and gender):
- Scores decreased across all achievement levels of students (lower-, middle-, and higher-performing), although lower-performing students (10th and 25th percentiles) had greater magnitudes of score decline than higher-performing students (75th and 90th percentiles)
- Average scores declined across all racial/ethnic groups except for Native Hawaiian/ Other Pacific Islander (no significant change)
- Average scores declined for both male and female students
Reading
Average eighth grade reading scores fell from 263 in 2019 to 260 in 2022, a decline of 3 points
- 30% of eighth-graders performed below NAEP Basic, compared to 27% in 2019
- 39% of fourth-graders performed at NAEP Basic – no change from 2019; 27% at NAEP Proficient compared to 29% in 2019; 4% at NAEP Advanced – no change from 2019
- Average scores decreased in a majority of states/jurisdictions and saw no significant change in a majority of participating urban districts, and the percentage of students who performed below NAEP Basic increased in a majority of states/jurisdictions and saw no significant change in a majority of participating urban districts
- 33 states/jurisdictions saw average scores decline, 18 states/jurisdictions had no significant change, and 1 state/jurisdiction (Department of Defense Education Activity) saw scores increase
- 30 states/jurisdictions had the percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic rise; 22 states/jurisdictions saw no significant change
- 4 of 26 participating urban districts saw average scores decline and an increase in the percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic; 21 saw no significant change; and 1 saw an increase in average scores and a lower percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic
- Scores decreased across all achievement levels and genders, but most racial/ethic groups saw no significant score change:
- Scores decreased across all achievement levels of students (lower-, middle-, and higher-performing). The magnitude of score declines was not significantly different for lower-performing students (10th and 25th percentiles) than higher-performing students (75th and 90th percentiles)
- All racial/ethnic groups saw no significant changes to reading scores except for white students, whose average scores dropped by 4 points
- Average scores declined for both male and female students
Average fourth grade reading score also fell by 3 points, from 263 in 2019 to 260
- 37% of fourth-graders performed below NAEP Basic, compared to 34% in 2019
- 29% of fourth-graders performed at NAEP Basic compared to 31% in 2019; 24% at NAEP Proficient compared to 26%; 9% at NAEP Advanced – no change from 2019
- Scores decreased in a majority of states/jurisdictions but saw no significant change in a majority of participating urban districts; the percentage of students who performed below NAEP Basic increased in half of states/jurisdictions but saw no significant change in a majority of participating urban districts
- 30 states/jurisdictions saw average scores decline and 26 saw the percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic rise; 22 states/jurisdictions saw no significant change in average scores, and 26 had no significant change in the percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic
- 9 of 26 participating urban districts saw average scores decline and 17 saw no significant change; 7 of 26 participating urban districts had a higher percentage of students performing below NAEP Basic and 19 had no significant change
- Scores decreased across nearly all demographics (including achievement level, racial/ethnic groups, and gender):
- Scores decreased across all percentiles of students except the 90th percentile, which saw no significant change. Score declines for lower-performing students (10th and 25th percentiles) were greater than those of higher-performing students (75th percentile)
- Average scores declined across all racial/ethnic groups except for Asian, Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, and students of two or more races (no significant change)
- Average scores declined for both male and female students
