The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress shows discouraging trends in how well fourth and eighth graders read and do math, Harvard education professor Martin West says in NCSL’s “Hot Topics in Education” virtual series.
“In fact, every single state is performing at a lower level than in 2019 in at least one grade and content area,” says West, who is vice president of the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the biennial test, also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.”
While there are two bright spots—Louisiana and Alabama saw improvements in reading and math—West says a growing number of students are performing below the proficient level.
“I really think this pervasive trend towards inequality in both subjects, both nationally and within states, is what I would want people to take away.”
—Martin West, National Assessment Governing Board
“We want as many students as possible to be reaching that benchmark, which reflects mastery of challenging content standards in each area,” West says.
What’s more, the achievement gap expanded since the last test in 2022, West says. The most proficient students—from higher income groups—gained ground, while economically disadvantaged students who struggle the most fell further behind.
When students aren’t proficient in these subject areas, it affects their future and the nation overall, he says.
“The knowledge and skills that are assessed by the test really do matter for students’ future success and for our collective success as states and as a nation,” West says.
“We have good research, for example, linking gains in eighth grade report card scores at the state level to improvements in later life outcomes, ranging from postsecondary education, teenage motherhood, arrest and incarceration,” he says. “They are strongly predictive of states’ rates of economic growth.”
The pandemic disrupted education and was a factor in lower scores in both math and reading in the 2022 NAEP, he says. But the downward drift of reading scores started before the pandemic.
“What we’re seeing in reading is a longer term erosion of student skills that started, depending on the grade you’re looking at, around 2015 or 2017,” West says.
“The most troubling numbers to me are the 40% of students in grade four reading—despite our best efforts to focus attention on improving early-literacy outcomes—who are failing to meet even below that basic benchmark,” he says, adding that the widening achievement gap is also a big concern.
“I really think this pervasive trend towards inequality in both subjects, both nationally and within states, is what I would want people to take away,” West says.
One bright spot: Louisiana fourth graders improved in reading.
“That’s a state that has invested in the science of reading and making that a big part of its early-grade instruction in that subject,” West says. “It’s also a state that has taken a serious approach to curricular reform and paid attention not just to whether students are mastering phonics and decoding skills, but also ensuring that they’re exposed to high-quality curriculum that builds the type of background knowledge students need to succeed on a reading comprehension test.”
Alabama saw improved scores in fourth grade math. West says research shows students there who are economically disadvantaged are making progress as fast as their more advantaged peers.
“It would be interesting to try and learn more about what’s driving that pattern of success,” he says.
Beginning in 1969, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has tested a representative sample of student performance over time, across the country and among different student groups. Every state also does its own testing, but West says it would be impossible to compare those results between states because the tests vary and have been revised over time.
But he says that state tests do tend to track with the results of the national test, showing similar trends even if they’re not exactly aligned. He says all the data can help legislators and schools determine where their students need help.
The Nation’s Report Card was never meant to offer solutions, but to guide states on what needs attention; it’s up to states and school districts to decide what steps to take, West says. And while the information is sobering, it’s not hopeless.
“One of the things that it’s important to point out is that in addition to showing where we are now and the need for improvement, information from the program also shows us that progress is possible,” West says. “That there have been periods in recent decades where we’ve shown quite substantial progress as a nation towards building students’ knowledge and skills.”
Learn more about NCSL’s “Hot Topics in Education” series, which runs on Fridays through May.
Kelley Griffin is a senior editor and the host and producer of NCSL’s “Across the Aisle” podcast.