Even after we’ve collectively shaken so many of our pandemic habits, one of the most concerning effects of social distancing lingers on our national report card: American students’ literacy skills keep getting worse.
The latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that test scores for reading continued to decline in 2024, with 40% of fourth graders and 33% of eighth graders scoring at a level considered as below basic proficiency — the greatest share in the federal exam’s three-decade history. Among all age groups, the gaps between high- and low-achieving students broadened.
Meanwhile, in mathematics, there was a slight uplift in fourth-grade scores from the year prior, to 76% of students at basic proficiency or higher, as eighth-grade scores stayed pretty level. While these results are slightly better than those seen for maths skills in the 1990s, they still lag significantly behind prepandemic levels.
Off the books
The marked deterioration in reading and math skills is observable nationwide, and seemingly transcends typical economic divisions of race, class, and school type. Regardless of background, the lowest-performing children saw the most pronounced drops in test scores in recent years.
How worried should we be about all these kids who can’t read good? As outlined in The Wall Street Journal earlier this week, students with limited reading skills are “less likely to graduate from high school” and “more likely to be incarcerated” as adults. Lower literacy rates are also linked to adverse health outcomes and economic costs.
While the pandemic certainly contributed to educational setbacks, experts have no clear-cut explanation for the prolonged decline in reading scores. Similar knocks in literacy and numeracy skills have also been detected among adults, demonstrating that the issue is likely broader than the classroom alone. Indeed, even with pandemic-era school closures behind us, the continued usage of phones, screens, and social media remains an easy bogeyman to blame.
