American students’ academic performance has reached a crisis point, with less than half receiving the high-quality education each child should be entitled to. The latest findings from the Nation’s Report Card, released by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the Department of Education, highlight a significant decline in student performance across multiple subjects, particularly among those in the bottom quarter of achievement.
The report uncovers shocking statistics telling the story of high school seniors. Sadly, only 35% of them read at or above a proficient level. Alarmingly, 32% don’t reach even the “basic” standard of reading proficiency. In math, the news is no better; only 22% of 12th graders are rated as proficient or above. These numbers represent a shocking decrease from previous years. In 2019, only 37% of high school seniors read at a proficient level and back in 1992 that percentage was 40%.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona with President Donald Trump’s charge to Betsy DeVos’s successor to destroy the Department of Education. This was a major shift to return control of educational agendas back to the states. Further, this drastic policy shift begs the question of how these policy changes are impacting students’ performance at the national level.
Linda McMahon, the U.S. On the release of the report, McMahon stood by its findings, noting that…
“Today’s NAEP results confirm a devastating trend: American students are testing at historic lows across all of K-12,” – Linda McMahon
In doing so, she drew attention to the widening achievement gap. With billions in annual investments for different K-12 initiatives, this has left record numbers of high school seniors unable to reach even basic proficiency markers in math and reading.
Additional data from the report indicates that approximately 31% of 12th graders reported missing three or more days of school in the month leading up to the survey in 2024. Specifically, this figure marks a 25% increase from 2019, indicating that absenteeism might be playing a role in worsening academic outcomes.
Marty West, an education professor and former assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development at the U.S.
“What troubles me most about the patterns that we’re seeing is that the declines are largest for our lowest-performing students — those in the bottom quarter of the distribution. Meanwhile, high-scoring students – those at the 90th percentile are doing just about as well as ever,” – Marty West
There’s no sign that this gap has affected high-scoring students at the 90th percentile, who are still doing just as well as past high-scoring students. In science, only 31% of eighth graders were at or above the proficient level.
