• Unfortunately, long-term national NAEP score data has largely shown little to moderate academic gains since its earliest days to today.
• Utah’s scores in fourth and eighth grade reading are higher than the national average by a significant margin. An additional bright spot is that 2024’s fourth grade math scores went up a little bit since 2022 – but reading scores are down.

Last week, the “Nation’s Report Card” came out – and the news isn’t great.

Officially called the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the test gives insights into how students across the U.S. are performing academically. What we learned last week is that students haven’t made up for the learning loss from the pandemic, and in many cases, they are still declining. But there are some wins for certain states, promising trends, and ideas worth considering.

Here are some of those highlights.

National NAEP scores have not looked good for a while

The national test, which was first administered in 1969, has for decades provided useful snapshots of student performance in math and reading for students in grades 4 and 8 in every state across the country. Unfortunately, long-term data has largely shown little to moderate academic gains since its earliest days to today.

For instance, in over 50 years, age 9 (roughly fourth grade) reading scores have only gone up a modest 7 points. According to a long-term trend assessment data (part of the NAEP program), the national average in 2022 was 215 while in 1971 it was 208.

Similarly, according to the long-term trend assessment data, in over 50 years there was “no significant difference” made in age 13 (basically eighth grade) reading scores. The national average eighth grade score in 1973 was 255 while in 2023 it was 256.

The long-term trend assessment story is a little better for age 9 math. National average scores have risen 15 points between 1973 and 2022, from a score of 219 to 234.

Still, in age 13 math, national average math scores for the long-term trend assessment data only rose a very modest 5 points between 1973 to 2023, from a score of 266 to 271 respectively.

The story has been worse in recent years. Scores have been generally declining for several years prior to 2019. Then, of course, the year 2020 brought the COVID-19 pandemic, school closures, and learning loss, along with lower NAEP scores.

Since the pandemic, education leaders have been eager to see any gains to suggest students are overcoming that learning loss. For the most part, the new scores show the gains at least in NAEP scores simply are not there.

For instance, nationally, fourth and eighth grade reading scores dropped 5 points since pre-pandemic or 2019. Likewise, since 2019, national scores were still down 4 points in fourth grade math and 8 points in eighth grade math, though with a little improvement in this subject. The performance gaps seen for lower-performing students have worsened.

What’s more problematic is that schools across the nation collectively received $190 billion in emergency federal funding to help overcome the impacts from the pandemic. Though the funding may have helped in certain areas specifically, these scores are highly suggestive that it did not overall.

Utah performed better than the national average but has a long way to go

The good news is that Utah’s scores in fourth and eighth grade reading are much higher than the national average by a significant margin.

An additional bright spot is that 2024’s fourth grade math scores went up a little bit since 2022 (though still down since 2019), suggesting students are making some gains from the pandemic learning loss. Eighth grade math scores stayed the exact same since last year, which unfortunately is better than many other states that saw losses.

However, reading is an area of concern. Utah reading scores in both fourth and eighth grades are not only down since before the pandemic, but they are also down since the last round in 2022. This has caught the attention of state leaders who are interested in doubling down on this issue.

How ‘education choice’ states fared on NAEP test

Louisiana

One state with NAEP scores worth mentioning is Louisiana. This state shined nationally this year in terms of significant NAEP score growth and is listed among the top five in Heritage Foundation’s overall ranking, those with the highest “education freedom” score, which includes categories like transparency, education choice, teacher freedom and return on investment.

Louisiana’s scores in fourth grade math and reading were not only up since last year but up since before the pandemic, which is notable given the national landscape. In eighth grade math, scores also went up since 2022 (though they are still down since before the pandemic). Reading scores in eighth grade have remained the exact same from 2019 to 2022 to 2024, which is still a relatively better outcome since it suggests no learning loss was felt in this category. Though a couple of the scores are still below the national average, the signs of growth in relation to the pandemic learning loss are worth commending.

(It’s worth noting Utah was also among the top five “education freedom” states.)

Likewise, education choice policies have boomed in recent years (as well as criticisms), and several states passed legislation after the pandemic hit as a response to parent dissatisfaction with schools. According to Heritage Foundation’s annual education freedom ranking, the top five highest “education choice” states are Arizona, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, and Arkansas.

While it’s not possible to capture the cause of a state’s NAEP scores based on isolated public policies (and it’s worth noting the vast majority of students in all these states still attend public schools) it’s interesting to see how education choice states performed. Basically, it’s a mixed bag of outcomes, with some bright spots.

Arizona

Arizona’s performance ranked below the national average score in each grade and category. Additionally, fourth grade reading, eighth grade reading and eighth grade math NAEP scores are still down since pre-pandemic and down since 2022. At best, fourth grade math stayed the same since 2022, though they are still down from pre-pandemic.

Florida

Overall, Florida’s fourth grade scores are significantly higher than the national average while eighth grade scores are below. Florida’s fourth grade math scores have gone up since 2022. Yet, fourth grade reading, eighth grade math and eighth grade reading scores are down since both 2022 and pre-pandemic.

Indiana

Three specific NAEP scores increased in Indiana. Fourth grade math, fourth grade reading and eighth grade reading scores all went up since 2022 (still lower than before the pandemic but suggests gains against learning loss) and are all significantly higher than the national average. Only eighth grade math went down slightly, but even here it was higher than the national average.

Iowa

In Iowa, eighth grade reading scores ticked up slightly since 2022, and eighth grade math scores fell since 2022. Both scores are below those in 2019, and both scores are above the national average. Both fourth grade math and reading scores fell since 2022 and are still below scores from before the pandemic and basically match the national average.

Arkansas

Arkansas’ fourth grade math scores went up since 2022, which is the only good news. Fourth grade reading and eighth grade math scores went down. Eighth grade reading scores remained the same since 2022. In all categories scores were below the national average.

Conclusion

In short, American education has a long way to go, not only to overcome pandemic learning loss but to make academic gains in general. We hope states are willing to look at their states holistically and make bold, evidence-based, parent-driven reforms where it makes sense.

Sutherland Institute policy intern Jason Mata contributed research to this article.