Nation’s Report Card Offers Mixed Signals on Student Academic Recovery Post-Pandemic
Nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the education system in the United States, the Nation’s Report Card unveils a complex landscape of academic recovery. While some progress is seen in mathematics, challenges remain, particularly in reading, where students have yet to recover to pre-pandemic proficiency levels.
Encouragingly, the data shows that students have started regaining lost ground in mathematics. Despite this progress, most fourth and eighth-grade students are still performing below the levels seen in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
These academic setbacks, which the pandemic has intensified, actually began before COVID-19, prompting educators and policymakers to explore underlying causes and potential interventions.
During the pandemic, public schools utilized approximately $190 billion in federal emergency funding to implement research-backed interventions like summer school and tutoring. While these efforts have yielded modest academic improvements, the latest data indicates that students continue to face significant hurdles on their journey to full recovery.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which underpins the Nation’s Report Card, is the most extensive national assessment of student achievement mandated by Congress. Administered biannually since 1969, it assesses math and reading skills among a diverse sample of fourth and eighth-grade students across the nation.
Progress in Math, Yet a Long Road Ahead
In 2024, fourth-grade mathematics scores showed slight improvement, a positive shift from the pandemic-induced decline. Notably, students across various demographics, including white, Black, Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged groups, demonstrated modest gains.
“In fourth grade, it seems that, regardless of where students were, they were improving,” observes Lisa Ashe, a math consultant with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and a member of the NAEP Governing Board.
Despite these gains, fourth-grade math scores remain below 2019 levels, with Alabama as the singular state that surpassed its pre-pandemic scores, thanks to a 2022 legislative focus on enhancing math proficiency.
Interestingly, a broader analysis reveals that fourth-grade math scores began stagnating and declining even before the pandemic, with a peak observed around 2013. The reasons behind this trend remain unclear, as noted by education researcher Dan Goldhaber from the University of Washington, who describes it as “the multitrillion-dollar question.”
Potential factors contributing to this decline include changes in federal education policies, the economic impact of the Great Recession, increased access to digital devices, and a decrease in recreational reading among students.
For eighth-graders, math scores have remained stable since 2022 but still fall short of 2019 levels. Alarmingly, while high-achieving students improved, those with lower performance saw further declines, widening the achievement gap.
“We need to meet the needs of these students that are in the lower percentiles, because something that we’re doing is not working for those students,” Ashe emphasizes.
Overall, 39% of fourth-graders and 28% of eighth-graders achieved proficiency in math according to NAEP standards, which are notably higher than most state benchmarks.
Reading Scores Continue to Decline
The situation in reading is more concerning, with fourth-graders continuing to lose ground. The percentage of students meeting the reading proficiency standard has decreased from 35% in 2019 to 31% in 2024.
Louisiana stands out as the sole state where fourth-grade reading scores surpassed those of 2019.
This cohort of fourth-graders began kindergarten as the pandemic struck, experiencing disruptions in their early education, including remote learning during crucial formative years.
Eighth-grade reading scores also declined, with only 30% of students achieving proficiency. The proportion of students reading below the basic level reached a historical low, according to Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement
The latest NAEP results introduce a refined method for measuring students’ socioeconomic status, further highlighting the strong connection between poverty and academic performance.
Among fourth-graders in the highest socioeconomic bracket, 77% performed above the national average in reading, while only 34% of those in the lowest bracket achieved the same.
While several urban districts made notable progress in math for economically disadvantaged students, districts like Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Guilford County in North Carolina, Baltimore City, and San Diego Unified School District excelled.
Addressing Absenteeism to Enhance Learning
NAEP data reveals a slight decrease in the percentage of students reporting frequent absences, yet absenteeism remains a barrier to academic achievement, particularly for lower-performing students.
Hedy Chang, head of Attendance Works, stresses that absenteeism affects not only academics but also social development and executive functioning. She advocates for a targeted approach to address the challenges faced by students with high absenteeism rates.
“You might not be able to take it all, tackle it all, at once,” Chang advises. “You might have to tackle it in bits and pieces, either by barrier or by grade or by this subset of schools.”
Ensuring all students attend school regularly could substantially boost academic performance.
