The Latest NAEP Disgrace U.S. students continue to perform poorly on standardized tests. By Larry Sand
https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/17/the-latest-naep-disgrace/
Every time National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores are released, it’s bad news for American students. Headlines in newspapers and websites repeat the same sad story, and the results for the “nation’s report card” released on September 9 were typical. A Wall Street Journal headline stated, “Twelfth-Grade Math and Reading Scores in U.S. Hit New Low.” The online K-12 Dive reported, “5 takeaways from another round of disappointing NAEP results,” and the NH Journal noted, “Worst-Ever NAEP Test Results a Five Alarm Fire for Public Schools.”
Indeed, the results of the latest tests conducted in spring 2024 were dismal, showing that only 22% of high school seniors are proficient or higher in math, a decrease from 24% in 2019. Additionally, only 35% of high school seniors are proficient in reading—the lowest score since NAEP began in 1969—down from 37% in 2019. Also, a record-high percentage scored at “below basic” levels in both math and reading compared to all previous assessments.
And just for good measure, the eighth-grade science test results were also released, and they were no better. The percentage of students scoring at the proficient level fell to 29%, down from 33%, and the average score returned to levels last seen in 2009, when a new version of the test was introduced.
Performance declined in all three science categories—physical, life, and earth and space sciences. Fewer than half of students can identify the main component of living cells, compared to 55% in 2019, and the percentage of students who can identify a characteristic of mammals dropped from 72% to 68%.
It’s not just the decline in skills that is concerning. The percentage of students who say they enjoy science activities fell from 52% to 42%.
Not surprisingly, students’ confidence in the subject has also worsened, with 28% saying they “definitely can do various science-related activities,” down from 34%.
The poor outcome aligns with the 4th- and 8th-grade reading and math scores, which were reported earlier this year. The results from those tests, administered in 2024, were announced in January and showed that 4th-graders continue to fall behind, with reading scores slightly lower, on average, than in 2022 and significantly lower than in 2019. Currently, only about a third of 4th- and 8th-grade students are proficient in reading and math.
Finally, the 2022 NAEP U.S. history and civics test results were just as alarming. The data reveal that only 13% of eighth graders meet proficiency standards for U.S. history, meaning they can “explain major themes, periods, events, people, ideas, and turning points in the country’s history.” Additionally, about 20% of students scored at or above the proficient level in civics. Both scores are the lowest ever recorded on these tests.
The education establishment is clueless about how to change course. Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, writes that high school principals’ response to the problem was tepid. After the latest test scores were revealed, the National Association of Secondary School Principals asserted that “policymakers must listen to school leaders and students and make real investments in mental health, staffing, and academic resources so every learner has the opportunity to thrive.”
What should the nation’s high school principals have said about the NAEP results? Something that doesn’t downplay our current crisis, shift focus to mental health, or call for more resources.
Instead, they should be calling for clear guidance for students and teachers, maintaining order in the classroom, eliminating grade inflation, addressing chronic absenteeism, fixing the damage caused by radical curricula, promoting rigor, setting high expectations, demanding efficient use of instructional time, and vowing to end wacky fads like “grading for equity.”
Other ways the education leaders have chosen to deal with the problem are deplorable. A clear example of a damaging policy can be seen in Illinois, where they are lowering student proficiency standards. Under the new policy, approved by the state Board of Education, 53% of students would be considered proficient in English Language Arts, up from 41% last year, and 38% would be proficient in math, up from 28% last year.
In New York, student spending appears to be the solution. The state has announced plans to allocate more funds to address the issue. The per-pupil cost to taxpayers is estimated to exceed $41,000 by next year. As a result, a class of 20 students would cost more than a million dollars.
In Los Angeles, only 27% of the more than 400,000 students in the school district meet basic grade-level science standards, 37% meet math standards, and 45% meet reading standards. The district also projects a $1.3 billion annual deficit by 2028. Since 2013, student enrollment has dropped by 29%, but per-pupil spending has increased by 229%. In addition to more spending, the district’s primary focus appears to be on promoting its radical agenda.
For example, August is “Inclusive Back to School.” As part of this effort, LAUSD links to various resources, from “Welcoming Schools: Defining LGBTQ Words for Elementary Students” to “Talking Race to Young Children.” LAUSD also offers supplementary lessons for the initiative, including “Names and Pronouns,” which emphasizes “the importance of respective affirmed names and pronouns,” and “Gender Roles,” which features a slide from an organization called Gender Spectrum where a male and a female student break out of their gender boxes. September is “Latinx Heritage Month,” and October is “LGBT History Month.”
To create meaningful change, we must work much harder to reduce the power of the nation’s teachers’ unions. Doing so would enable us to close low-achieving schools, dismiss underperforming teachers, pay good teachers more, and expand parental authority through increased school choice.
Nothing will change until we end the government-run school/union monopoly, where there is no penalty for failure. Our poorly educated students will grow up to be uninformed adults and send our country into a tailspin that we may never recover from.
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