National test results decline as New Mexico officials fear loss of education funds

Newly released test results from spring 2024 tell a familiar story: The across-the-board slump in academic outcomes has persisted.

The Nation’s Report Card, the congressionally mandated test score analysis released Monday, showed nationwide four-point drops among eighth graders’ science scores and 3 point drops in 12th graders’ math and reading scores since 2019 — before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted schools and sent students from classrooms into remote learning.

Overall, the average results among grades and subjects are at historic lows, and the gaps between high- and low-performing students are at historic highs, resulting in a widening of a chasm in achievement that overseers of the test pointed out "began before the pandemic."

Though these results are national — not state-speci