The Nation’s Report Card recently went public. It’s the kind of thing that kids hide from their parents.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress offers a grim view of America’s classrooms. Between 2022 and 2024, the share of fourth graders reading below basic level grew from 37% to 40%; among eighth graders, from 30% to 33%. Fourth grade math improved slightly, from 25% to 24% (i.e., fewer students below basic). Alas, below-basic eighth grade math performance crept up from 38% of students to 39%.
These figures are all worse than before COVID-19 ruined everything.
“I don’t know how many different ways you can say these results are bad, but they’re bad,” University of Washington researcher Dan Goldhaber told The Washington Post. “I don’t think this is the canary in the coal mine. This is a flock of dead birds in the coal…
