The average math and reading scores for students at the age of 9 declined substantially over the past two years, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation’s Report Card.
The data, released Thursday, showed declines across all demographics, with the most significant declines among students who were already considered to be “low performers” in the subjects.
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The most pronounced decline overall was in math, where student scores dropped by an average of seven points, the first ever recorded decline in the subject for that age. In reading, scores declined by an average of five points, a drop that hadn’t been seen in 30 years.
“This is the largest average score decline in reading since 1990, and the first ever score decline in mathematics,” the report card read.
The results are a snapshot of the lost learning experienced by students over two pandemic-affected school years that saw students of all ages forced into online learning environments as school districts across the country failed to open for in-person instruction.
In a USA Today op-ed Thursday, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the newly released data should “further call to action for states, districts and communities” to use federal COVID-19 relief funds allocated to address learning loss.
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund received nearly $200 billion in funds in 2020 and 2021 from three different COVID-19 relief spending bills passed by Congress to address the pandemic’s effect on education.
“We must raise the bar for our students now and use the resources we have to meet that bar. We must recognize this moment for the urgency it carries: Our students — and the progress of our country — depend on it,” Cardona wrote.
But amid the dire numbers from the report, Cardona expressed optimism that the academic shortcomings of the last two years were being effectively made up.
“While we use this new data to help sharpen and focus our plans to accelerate student growth, we also know that many of our students are on track to make significant academic progress this school year,” he wrote. “Initial state assessment results in places like Indiana and Connecticut … show that many students made enough progress to close some of the pandemic-related achievement gaps. This progress is a testament to the enduring impacts our educators and school staffs can make on helping our students catch up, both academically and developmentally.”
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos told the Washington Examiner in a statement Thursday that the newly released set of statistics was “wholly avoidable” and placed the blame for the decline at the feet of teachers unions for blocking attempts to reopen schools.
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“These numbers aren’t merely test scores. They represent our future generation’s potential being needlessly and shamelessly dragged down by an education system that refuses to put their needs first,” DeVos said.
“The big school unions bosses forced the CDC to keep schools closed longer than was necessary, and our kids were held hostage as a result. It’s time to set every child free from the government-run, union-controlled education system that continues to fail them. It’s time to pass school choice in Congress and in every legislature across America,” she said.
