Washington– Younger students regained their progress academically after the disruptions caused by the pandemic, while older students improved their test scores Continue to stagnateaccording to the latest testing data released by the federal government.
Nine-year-olds rebounded to pre-pandemic reading scores and saw some recovery in math, according to data from a test that has been administered regularly in the United States since the 1970s. The same recovery did not occur for 13-year-olds, whose average grades were 13 mathematics The reading is still below pre-pandemic averages. In fact, the most recent reading scores, from teens taken the test in 2024, are essentially the same level they were when testing began in 1971.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, schools and state policymakers have focused on reforming education for elementary students, especially in applying the “science of reading,” which teaches children to read by understanding how letter sounds are formed. Leslie Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Board, said recent test results show that educators must also focus more intensely on adolescent learners and changing academic outcomes in middle school.
In fact, 13-year-olds who took the national test experienced the disruption caused by the pandemic during their formative elementary school years. In a few years, they will have graduated, and may still be lagging behind.
“The 13-year-olds who took this assessment last year are now heading to high school or are already enrolled,” she said. “Schools will not be able to maintain it much longer. We cannot hesitate or wait if we want to change these trends.”
The Long-Term Trends Assessment, typically conducted every four years, provides a snapshot of the academic skills of American students between ages 9 and 13. Nearly 31,000 students in public and private schools took the test in the 2024-2025 school year. Unlike the main one Test the Nation’s Report Card For fourth- and eighth-grade students, which is regularly updated with new skills to reflect changing curricula, the long-term test has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s.
American students’ academic achievement was already declining when the pandemic hit. Test scores peaked around 2012 and then began to decline, said Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
“We can clearly see that this is not just an epidemiological story,” Soldner said.
Test results show that younger children are improving basic skills, such as identifying facts in a simple news article or understanding basic multiplication and division. 71% of 9-year-olds reached the standard in reading, and 84% reached that level in mathematics, which is a few percentage points higher than in 2022.
Adolescents are tested on more advanced skills, such as making generalizations from A Reading corridor Compare information from charts and graphs. Only 58% achieved the standard skill level in reading and 70% in mathematics, with no statistically significant improvement as of 2023.
Compounding the problem of stagnant literacy rates: fewer students than ever are reading for pleasure.
Students who took the test also completed a survey. Only 14% of 13-year-olds said they read for pleasure every day, down from 27% in 2012 and a peak of 37% in 1992. Among 9-year-olds, 37% said they read for pleasure every day, a significant drop from 53% in 2012. The researchers noted Decrease in time spent reading It corresponds to the rise of social media use on mobile phones.
However, younger children have shown an “incredibly encouraging” academic recovery in recent years, Soldner says. “Almost 50 years of progress has been wiped out” for 13-year-olds, he said.
The 13-year-olds most recently tested were in second or third grade during the first year of the pandemic. They would have returned to in-person learning in fourth or fifth grade and took this national test in the last year or two of middle school.
In contrast, the 9-year-old group would have entered kindergarten or first grade as the most severe phase of the pandemic ended and schools reopened. The second and third grade years were more reflective of typical in-person teaching.
These experiences are significantly different, Soldner said, as the older group has missed out on foundational years in building literacy and numeracy skills in school.
While recent declines in student scores are troubling, decades of testing data show it is possible to change children’s trajectories over time, said Mark Miller, an eighth-grade math teacher and former National Assessment Board member.
“We’ve made progress in the past, from the early 1970s to 2012,” Miller said. “Could it be done again? Sure.”
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