
© AP
Read it and weep — if you can.
American schools got a big fat F on their report card this week — with reading proficiency for eighth graders hitting the lowest level in the 32 years that the federal government has been tracking it.
Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test - administered to fourth and eighth graders — showed at least a third of America's students failed to demonstrate "basic" reading skills expected for their age group.With 51.5 million students enrolled in public school across America, that represents potentially tens of millions of kids failing to make the grade.Just 67% of eighth-graders were able to meet or exceed basic skills on the 2024 test, 2% fewer than in 1992 when NAEP testing began.
Fourth-graders' reading proficiency was also lower than in 1992, with just 60% meeting basic skills in 2024. Math scores were somewhat less dire but still remained below pre-pandemic levels.
Fourth-grade math improved by two points from 2022 to 2024 with 77% of students reaching basic proficiency — but still down from 80% in 2019.
Eighth-grade math levels from 2022 to 2024 dropped by one point, from 62% to 61%. They are down by nine points from 2019.
Education groups are blaming the Covid-19 pandemic and kids continuing to fall behind. Republicans say it's the result of policies of the Biden administration that has bogged down teachers with "woke" lesson plans, instead of focusing on reading, writing and arithmetic.For those whose own reading comprehension needs some practice: that means American kids today are behind their peers from three decades ago.
"The news is not good," said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics which oversees the assessment, while the Department of Education called the results "heartbreaking."
The decline in reading has continued steadily since scores peaked around 2013. But, they took a sharp nose dive during the pandemic kept millions of kids out of school or facing onerous Covid restrictions.Scores dropped nearly four points for both fourth and eighth graders between 2019 and 2022. Students meeting basic reading skills dropped another two points in both groups into 2024.
Since 2013 - when 77% of eighth graders met basic reading levels - 10% fewer kids are meeting the federal standard for reading.
Republican lawmakers were quick to finger former President Joe Biden for the dire situation.
"This is clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow," said Rep. Tim Walberg, (R-Mich.), chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee."I'm thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course," he said of President Trump.
The DOE also weighed in, saying the nation's new leadership was ready to turn things around.
"Change must happen, and it must happen now," the DOE said in a statement. "The Trump Administration is committed to reorienting our education system to fully empower states, to prioritize meaningful learning, and provide universal access to high-quality instruction."
Students are classified as below proficiency if their test answers indicate they lack what are considered fundamental skills. For eighth graders, that means being able to infer a character's motivation after reading a short story, or identifying that the word "industrious" means "hard working."
Past multiple-choice questions from the test had students read an article on pollution in the Pacific Ocean, and asked them to make a "simple inference" about the subject.
They were also asked to "describe an explicitly stated idea" from the text, explain how graphics included were relevant to the reading, and write and support their own opinions about the topic.
Previous questions from the fourth-grade exam had students read a short story and a poem, and asked them to identify how basic elements contributed to the plot and characters. Basic vocabulary — defining words like "sufficient" and "sourvenir" — was also tested.
The gap between high and lower performing students also showed signs of trouble by widening across most subjects in 2024 - with the best students doing better than those from 2022, and the worst scoring lower than those from 2022.
That gap was most starkly shown in eighth-grade math scores - where the top 10% of students saw a three-point increase, and the lowest ten saw a six-point decline.The startling results seem to have an undeniable connection to education disruptions caused by the pandemic, as both age groups were affected by the crisis — fourth graders who took the 2024 test were in kindergarten when the pandemic sent students home in 2020, and the eight graders were themselves fourth graders at the time.But Carr thinks the pandemic is no longer to blame, and cited "complex challenges," including a study run in conjunction with the exam that found fewer students are reading for pleasure.
And students who have continued to be absent from class performed worse than those who have been consistently present since attendance returned to normal.
"The data are clear," said Carr. "Students who don't come to school are not improving."
Reader Comments
Schools haven't gotten worse, I don't think. The same level of marginally-alert people are running the system as when I started teaching. It's a system in which anyone with authoritarian instincts and minimal organization skills can function. In the half dozen schools I was in, there were no real teaching standards. The rules for success are: 1. "Be a team player"(don't rock the boat). 2. Ideas that require initiative, thought, or skill are intimidating (unless it's the latest, greatest, teaching fad - in that case, get out your pom-pom). Focus on keeping the kids in line, and bow to King Grift when it's time for the taxpayers to shell out for new teaching programs. If you have another program you like better, too bad. And who asked your opinion anyway? The system is designed to use incurious and obedient tax slaves to make more incurious and obedient tax slaves.
I'm amazed that pathetic system didn't kill me. I did what I could for the kids, and enjoyed coming up with ways to help them experience success. I was told that one of my principals said of me, "She could teach a rock to read." It warms me to think of that assessment.
John Taylor Gatto and Charlotte Iserbyt both wrote about and talked about the dumbing down of children through the educational system. That was in the 90s. Following that you had Bush's "No child left behind" and Obama's "Race to the top: common core". Both of these programs used the narrative that they were raising the lowest to the highest.
The reality of both programs is they were attempts to Federalize education, creating a common "curriculum" of indoctrination: white privilege, systemic racism, global warming, collective group-think, choose your sexual identity, take ADHD drugs and puberty blockers, read stupid text, learn stupid math, follow the "experts".
One of the directions Trump announced, was to end the Dept of Education and push education back to the States. This indoctrination is the reason.