The results of the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the Nation’s Report Card, were recently released, and despite Pennsylvania being slightly above the national curve for reading and math scores, public school students there are struggling academically to return to pre-pandemic levels of achievement.
The Jan. 29 assessment results show that Pennsylvania fourth graders scored lower in both reading and math than they tested in 2019. Students in Philadelphia are achieving below average in math and reading compared to other students in large cities, the test results indicate.
The findings by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reveal that American students continue to lag behind on reading and math skills.
The NAEP test results come as United States schools have seen pandemic school closures, a youth mental health crisis and elevated rates of chronic absenteeism, according to the Associated Press.
Given every two years to a sample of children in the U.S., the NAEP is considered one of the best indicators of the academic progress of the American school system. The most recent test was given in early 2024 to a sample of fourth and eighth graders in every state, testing math and reading.
In 2024, the average math score of 216 for fourth graders in Philadelphia public schools is lower than the average score of 231 for students in large cities. This average is higher than their average score of 209 in 2022, marking slight progress, but lower than their score of 222 in 2009.
Eighth graders earned an average math score of 252, lower than the average of 266 for students in large cities. The current score remains the same as the average math score in 2022.
The national test revealed significant disparities by demographic groups, similar to past years’ results. Black students in eighth grade earned an average math score that was 39 points lower than the white students’ average score, the test results showed. Fourth graders identified as being economically disadvantaged scored 15 points lower than those who weren’t economically disadvantaged.
The reading test included literary and informational texts to evaluate students’ reading comprehension skills, according to NAEP. Fourth- and eighth-grade students in Philadelphia public schools performed below average in reading.
A mere 17 percent of fourth-grade students in Philadelphia performed at or above the NAEP’s Proficient level in reading in 2024, and only 18 percent of eighth-grade students did, according to the test results. This percentage has incrementally increased from 2009 to 2024.
The average fourth-grade reading score of 195 remains the same as the average score in both 2022 and pre-pandemic in 2009. The average eighth-grade reading score of 242 is a full 10 points lower than the average reading score for eighth graders in large cities.
“We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic,” Peggy Carr, the commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, tells the Associated Press.
To learn more about the NAEP and explore tools to better understand its data, visit nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/data.
, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, were recently released.){kind=link}