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Well, folks, the Nation's Report Card just flunked America’s kids yet again. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the academic yardstick we've been using for decades to measure how our students stack up, dropped its latest bombshell Tuesday, and it's a doozy.
Math and reading scores for 12th-graders have hit rock bottom, plumbing new depths of educational despair. And no, this isn’t some post-COVID hangover; the slide started years before the WuFlu turned classrooms into Zoom nightmares.
"Scores for 12th-graders in math and reading continued their years-long slide, reaching new lows on national tests, new data released Tuesday shows."
"Scores for 12th-graders in math and reading continued their years-long slide, reaching new lows on national tests, new data released Tuesday shows."
Yes, the numbers are uglier than a public school lunch menu. The decline was already in motion pre-pandemic, but policymakers were crossing their fingers for a 2024 rebound. Spoiler alert: they got a face full of failure instead. "Average scores fell to their lowest levels since the current versions of these tests were first administered in both math and reading, as did scores for the lowest-performing students."
The NAEP sorts kids into three buckets: proficient, basic, and below basic. Guess which one's getting crowded? "The number of students scoring below basic has increased," and it isn't just a blip. In reading, the 2024 average score was the lowest since the test kicked off in 1992. A whopping "32 percent of high school seniors scored below 'basic,'" which means they can't even pick out details in a text to figure out what it's saying.
The NAEP sorts kids into three buckets: proficient, basic, and below basic. Guess which one's getting crowded? "The number of students scoring below basic has increased," and it isn't just a blip. In reading, the 2024 average score was the lowest since the test kicked off in 1992. A whopping "32 percent of high school seniors scored below 'basic,'" which means they can't even pick out details in a text to figure out what it's saying.
Math was even worse. The average score is the lowest since 2005, with "45% of high school seniors" flunking the "basic" mark, highest percentage in two decades. Only 33% are ready for college-level math, down from 37% in 2019. But I bet students understand terms about what a gender-fluid, two-spirited, non-binary person is.
Here’s the kicker: the bright kids at the top? Untouched. "Students at the very top have not seen their scores decline at all but students near the bottom have seen their scores collapse." For a decade, the floor's been caving in on low performers, while the 90th-percentile kids keep sipping their intellectual lattes, unfazed. Lesley Muldoon, NAEP's head honcho, put it bluntly: "The test scores show more students are not reaching what would be considered ‘basic’ achievement across subject areas." She insists "proficient" isn't an impossible bar, but when nearly half your seniors can't hit "basic" in math, maybe it's time to rethink what's "reasonable."
By the way, it isn't just high schoolers. Eighth-grade science scores tanked too, with "38 percent of students scoring below the basic level, compared with 33 percent in 2019." At this rate, we'll be lucky if these kids can spell "science" by graduation.
So, what's the culprit? Remote learning during the pandemic sure didn't help, especially for the kids already scraping the bottom. But this nosedive started five or six years before COVID. Enter the usual suspect: screens.
Here’s the kicker: the bright kids at the top? Untouched. "Students at the very top have not seen their scores decline at all but students near the bottom have seen their scores collapse." For a decade, the floor's been caving in on low performers, while the 90th-percentile kids keep sipping their intellectual lattes, unfazed. Lesley Muldoon, NAEP's head honcho, put it bluntly: "The test scores show more students are not reaching what would be considered ‘basic’ achievement across subject areas." She insists "proficient" isn't an impossible bar, but when nearly half your seniors can't hit "basic" in math, maybe it's time to rethink what's "reasonable."
By the way, it isn't just high schoolers. Eighth-grade science scores tanked too, with "38 percent of students scoring below the basic level, compared with 33 percent in 2019." At this rate, we'll be lucky if these kids can spell "science" by graduation.
So, what's the culprit? Remote learning during the pandemic sure didn't help, especially for the kids already scraping the bottom. But this nosedive started five or six years before COVID. Enter the usual suspect: screens.
D. Graham Burnett, a Princeton science historian, nailed it: "With the ubiquity of screens, it seems inevitable that in the future, fewer people will engage with lengthy texts." He's hopeful the "cultural inheritance" of books can survive through speech or memorization, but good luck convincing a TikTok-addled teen to memorize anything longer than a 15-second dance routine.
The comments section on this story is a goldmine of real talk. A high school teacher with 25 years in the trenches laid it bare: "This is not entirely pandemic related. Educators have been witnessing a massive academic decay over the past 10-15 years. This slide in academic and emotional maturity correlates to the gaining impacts and interactions with cell phone technologies and streaming tv services." Kids aren't curious anymore, he says. They don't read, don't see adults reading (actual books, not screens), and are "widely ill-informed" unless a TikTok influencer spoon-feeds them. They can't sit still, crave constant validation, and "crumble or walk away at the slightest hint of friction or difficulties." He said, "The focus required to allow an author to unfold a narrative is an endangered quality."
A recent high school grad chimed in, echoing the same grim truth: "We are so susceptible to whatever is said on TikTok. For some reason, people will believe anything said with enough conviction."
The comments section on this story is a goldmine of real talk. A high school teacher with 25 years in the trenches laid it bare: "This is not entirely pandemic related. Educators have been witnessing a massive academic decay over the past 10-15 years. This slide in academic and emotional maturity correlates to the gaining impacts and interactions with cell phone technologies and streaming tv services." Kids aren't curious anymore, he says. They don't read, don't see adults reading (actual books, not screens), and are "widely ill-informed" unless a TikTok influencer spoon-feeds them. They can't sit still, crave constant validation, and "crumble or walk away at the slightest hint of friction or difficulties." He said, "The focus required to allow an author to unfold a narrative is an endangered quality."
A recent high school grad chimed in, echoing the same grim truth: "We are so susceptible to whatever is said on TikTok. For some reason, people will believe anything said with enough conviction."
Motivation is in the gutter too. Why bother when college grads are slinging burgers under a mountain of debt? Add in "lack of focus" (blame the screen-fried brains and questionable ADHD diagnoses) and a system that passes kids who do zilch. "I remember in my geometry class a boy never did a single assignment," the grad wrote. "He only took the tests and routinely did poorly. However, his parents caused a fuss and he was given a high enough grade to move onto the next class."
Look, screens and social media aren't the devil for everyone; top students seem to handle them fine. But for the kids at the bottom, swapping math homework for hours of TikTok doom-scrolling is a one-way ticket to academic oblivion. Maybe it's time we admit that "scrolling" isn't a subject, and "basic" shouldn't be a pipe dream.
Look, screens and social media aren't the devil for everyone; top students seem to handle them fine. But for the kids at the bottom, swapping math homework for hours of TikTok doom-scrolling is a one-way ticket to academic oblivion. Maybe it's time we admit that "scrolling" isn't a subject, and "basic" shouldn't be a pipe dream.
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