The writing is on the wall — if you can read it.
Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly referred to as The Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992.
The math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency, the lowest point since the current test began in 2005.
“American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12,” McMahon said in response to the scores, which were extracted from tests administered to thousands of students in early 2024.
“Nearly half of America’s high school seniors are testing at below basic levels in math and reading,” she went on. “The achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading.”
The average score on the 12th-grade math and reading assessments dropped three points from 2019. Among fourth-graders, the average math score was also three points lower than before the COVID-19 pandemic, while eight-graders saw their average decline eight points from five years earlier. Average scores on the fourth and eighth-grade reading exam dropped by five points between 2019 and 2024.
“These results are sobering,” National Center for Education Statistics Acting Commissioner Matthew Soldner said in a statement. “The drop in overall scores coincides with significant declines in achievement among our lowest-performing students, continuing a downward trend that began even before the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“Among our nation’s high school seniors, we’re now seeing a larger percentage of students scoring below the NAEP Basic achievement level in mathematics and reading than in any previous assessment.”
In addition to the low proficiency scores, 32% of high school seniors scored below the NAEP “basic” level in reading, up from 20% in 1992.On the math exam, 45% of 12th-graders missed the “basic” benchmark, compared to 40% in 2005.
The National Report Card also shows a growing gap between the highest-performing students and the lowest-performing ones.
On both the math and reading exam, scores dropped among all students except for those scoring in the 90th percentile and above, with scores in the 10th and 25th percentile the lowest on record.
“Today’s NAEP scores continue to show a devastating decline in math, science, and reading scores,” warned House Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-Mich.).
“Low academic skills don’t just hurt grades; they weaken our economy, workforce, and national security. Without strong foundations in these core subjects, America’s freedom and economic competitiveness will be in jeopardy.”
Beyond test scores, the National Report Card highlighted that nearly one-third (31%) of 12th graders acknowledged missing three or more days of school in the month before taking the test, a 26% increase from 2019.
“These scores clearly show the K-12 system is failing children and families. Students are leaving high school unable to read and unprepared for the workforce,” added Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee.
“We are at risk of having an entire generation of children fail to become productive adults if classroom proficiency does not improve.”
NAEP has been conducting national tests of students since 1969. NAEP tests in reading and math are typically given to fourth and eighth grade students every two years, while high school seniors get them every four years.
The Trump administration is preparing to release a “toolkit” of resources for educators on strategies for reading, artificial intelligence, and more, McMahon previously told The Post.
Meanwhile, states including New York are cracking down on the use of cellphones in classrooms as part of a campaign to improve students’ focus on lessons.
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