Student test scores are sliding, reaching new lows
- GAB NEWS
- Sep 10
- 3 min read
Scores for 12th-graders in math and reading continued their years-long slide, reaching new lows on national tests, new data released Tuesday show.
9 September 2025 at 12:05 a.m. EDT
Scores for 12th-graders in math and reading continued their years-long slide, reaching new lows on national tests, new data released Tuesday shows.
The declines were underway before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which broadly disrupted education, and scores have continued to fall. Policymakers had hoped there would be signs of recovery by 2024, when these tests were administered. Instead, the results were the latest indication of the pervasive challenges facing American schools and students.
Average scores fell to their lowest levels since the current versions of these tests were first administered in both math and reading, as did scores for the lowest-performing students. Only students at the very top showed stable results.
And a record high 45 percent of high school seniors scored “below basic” in math. Those at the basic level, for instance, would be able to “apply statistical reasoning in the organization and display of data and in reading tables and graphs.” This means that nearly half of seniors were set to graduate without these and other skills.
Nearly 1 in 3 seniors were below basic in reading, also a record. The lowest-performing students recorded an average score of 224, which was 25 points lower than their counterparts scored in 1992.
“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows, continuing declines that began more than a decade ago. My predecessor warned of this trend and her predecessor warned of this trend as well, and now I am warning you about this trend,” said Matthew Soldner, acting director of the Institute of Education Sciences, the research and data branch of the Education Department. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted, focused action to accelerate student learning.”
He said these results mean that only about 1 in 3 seniors were ready to do college-level work in math and reading.
The results, part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, were similar to those reported earlier this year for fourth- and eighth-graders. The tests were administered in January to March 2024 to students in public and private schools and are representative of the nation as a whole.
Thirty-five percent of high school seniors scored as “proficient” in reading, and 22 percent were proficient in math — standards that are often harder to reach than state-run assessments but that represent what federal researchers believe students should know by the end of high school.
The new batch of results also included testing of eighth-graders in science. The average group of eighth-graders saw their science scores fall below levels recorded in 2019, erasing gains made since this test was first administered in 2009. That also was true for the highest-performing students, and the lowest group lost a little ground over time.
Federal officials did not attempt to explain the reasons behind the scores or the trends. Soldner said he was not sure, for instance, whether the scores of seniors were deflated compared with historic levels because fewer students are dropping out, meaning more low-achieving students remain in the testing pool.
The Trump administration and its allies, however, frequently point to such test data as proof that the education system is failing and offer it as evidence that the Education Department should close. An executive order in March calling for the department to close specifically cited NAEP testing data.
In a statement Tuesday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the results “confirm a devastating trend” that has come to pass “despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs.”
“That’s why President Trump and I are committed to returning control of education to the states so they can innovate and meet each school and students’ unique needs,” she said.
The Trump administration has proposed giving states have more control over how they spend some federal funding, though they also asked Congress to cut the total spending on those programs. Officials have not detailed how this change — or how closing the Education Department — would improve test outcomes.
The office that administers these tests was decimated by staff layoffs and canceled contracts as the U.S. DOGE Service tackled the Education Department earlier this year. Among the fallout was the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, who oversees the NAEP testing program. But officials said then that the NAEP program itself would be spared.
On a call with reporters Monday, Soldner said the cuts did not hamper the office’s ability to analyze and report on these results.
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