Record Shattered – Lowest Point in 30 Years
(NewsReady.com) – Are you worried about what’s going on in our public schools? You should be. New data shows that scores in vital skills have fallen sharply since 2020 and are back to where they were 20 years ago.
Education Department: "Average scores for age 9 students in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in mathematics compared to 2020. This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics." https://t.co/aiK8adqbmx pic.twitter.com/1RKdKi9mgG
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) September 1, 2022
On Thursday, September 1, the National Assessment of Education Progress — “The nation’s report card” — released its latest survey on 9-year-old American students. If this really was a report card, it would say “Can do better” at the bottom, because the statistics make for grim reading.
Between 2020 and 2022, average scores in reading fell by five points — the biggest decline since 1990 — while math scores are down seven points.
The situation is even worse when you take a more detailed look. The declines aren’t evenly distributed; students who were already struggling saw their progress fall much more. In reading, there was only a 2-point decline for the top 10% of students, but the bottom 10% suffered a 10-point fall. Math results were similar, with a 3-point fall for top students and 12 points for those at the bottom.
It was inevitable that shutting down schools during the COVID pandemic would harm students, but these declines in test scores are some of the biggest ever seen. Overall, US students are still performing better than their predecessors in the 1970s, but is “not as bad as under the Carter administration” really something to be proud of? The report card is out, and our public school system has a failing grade.
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