Student Test Scores Remain Flat or Behind Pre-COVID Levels, Assessments Find

Math and reading scores across the nation continue to decline or remain stagnant nearly five years after the COVID-19 pandemic stalled classroom learning, recent state assessment results indicate. Most states have released their annual report card summaries for the 2023–2024 academic year. One of the latest, New York’s, shows that the average reading/English Language Arts among public school students in third through eighth grade was 46 percent, a 2 percent drop from the year prior. In math, the average proficiency rate for the same grade levels was 54 percent, a 2 percent increase from the 2022–2023 academic year. The New York Department of Education defines proficiency as competency over challenging subject matter. Its recent report card doesn’t include chronic absenteeism and high school graduation rates, but last year’s report listed those as 26.4 percent and 88.3 percent, respectively....