NAEP 'Nation's Report Card' shows largest-ever math declines, reading drops to 1992 levels
The first National Assessment of Educational Progress since before the pandemic showed average fourth- and eighth-grade math scores falling 5 and 8 points respectively from 2019 — the steepest declines in the assessment's history — and reading scores falling 3 points in both grades to levels last seen in 1992, with no state posting gains and the lowest-performing students hit hardest. The National Assessment Governing Board and Education Department attributed the results to the pandemic's disruption of schooling; NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr called the 8-point math decline 'historic for this assessment.' Analysts on all sides cautioned that the NAEP data alone cannot establish how much of the decline was caused specifically by school closures versus other pandemic effects — NCES stated the data show no measurable difference based solely on closure length, a point of ongoing interpretive dispute.
Primary quotes
“This must be a wake-up call for the country that we have to make education a priority.”
Beverly Perdue, chair, National Assessment Governing Board, Oct. 24, 2022
Linked sources
Related contentions
Unresolved. The 2022 NAEP results documented unprecedented learning loss, and the extent of union input into CDC guidance is confirmed by released emails, but whether closures were a proportionate response to the evidence available at the time — and how much of the learning loss closures specifically caused — remains actively contested in congressional inquiries, research, and public debate.