The National Center for Education Statistics gives academic exams to random samples of students in all 50 states, producing what is known as the annual “Nation’s Report Card.” The latest release of fourth and eighth grade mathematics and reading results from the report card, officially known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress, show that America’s public schools got a D-minus. Fortunately, the results also demonstrate which narratives to reject in searching for an explanation.
The 2024 Nation’s Report Card results were the second post-pandemic set of exams. Sadly, the 2024 results were even worse than the 2022 results: While higher-scoring public school students show modest signs of recovery, lower-scoring students have continued to slide. We have little to show for the $190 billion Congress budgeted in large part for academic recovery after the…
