Eighth-grade students also lost significant ground in science skills, according to the results from the National Assessment of Education Progress.

The assessments were the first since the pandemic for eighth graders in science and 12th graders in reading and math. They reflect a downward drift across grade levels and subject areas in previous releases from NAEP, which is considered one of the best gauges of the academic progress of U.S. schools.

“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows,” said Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted and focused action to accelerate student learning.”

While the pandemic had an outsize impact on student achievement, experts said falling scores are part of a longer arc in education that cannot be attributed solely to COVID-19, school closures and related issues such as heightened absenteeism. Educators said potential underlying factors include children’s increased screen time, shortened attention spans and a decline in reading longer-form writing both in and out of school.

The dip in reading scores appeared alongside a shift in how English and language arts are taught in schools, with an emphasis on short texts and book excerpts, said Carol Jago, associate director of the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. As a high school English teacher 20 years ago, Jago said it was common for her high school students to read 20 books over the course of a year. Now, some English classes are assigning just three books a year.

“To be a good reader, you have to have the stamina to stay on the page, even when the going gets tough,” Jago said. “You have to build those muscles, and we’re not building those muscles in kids.”

Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the scores show why the Trump administration wants to give states more control of education spending.

“Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading than ever before,” McMahon said.

House Democrats said the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department will only hurt students. The declines show a need for federal investment in academic recovery and educational equity, said Democratic Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia, ranking member of the House Committee on Education and Workforce.

“Eliminating the very agency responsible for supporting public schools and enforcing civil rights protections of students will only deepen the achievement gaps identified by this assessment,” Scott said.

Fewer students show basic proficiency in math and reading

The test scores show more students are not reaching what would be considered “basic” achievement across subject areas, said Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board. While NAEP’s definition of “proficient” is a high bar, Muldoon said, it is not an unreasonable one, and it is based on what researchers believe students should be able to achieve by the end of high school.

“These students are taking their next steps in life with fewer skills and less knowledge in core academics than their predecessors a decade ago,” she said. “This is happening at a time when rapid advancements in technology and society demands more of future workers and citizens, not less.”

In reading, the average score in 2024 was the lowest score in the history of the assessment, which began in 1992. Thirty-two percent of high school seniors scored below “basic,” meaning they were not able to find details in a text to help them understand its meaning.

In math, the average score in 2024 was the lowest since 2005, when the assessment framework changed significantly. On the test, 45% of high school seniors scored below “basic” achievement, the highest percentage since 2005. Only 33% of high school seniors were considered academically prepared for college-level math courses, a decline from 37% in 2019.

The high school reading and math assessments, and the eighth grade science test, are given less frequently than the biannual fourth and eighth grade reading tests, which were last released earlier this year. The new scores reflect tests taken in schools around the country between January and March 2024.

Achievement gaps are widening

The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students was its widest ever among eighth grade science students, reflecting growing inequality in the American school system. The achievement gap widened also in 12th grade math.

The scores also reflect the re-emergence of a gender gap in science, technology, engineering and math courses. In 2019, boys and girls scored virtually the same on the NAEP science assessment. But in 2024, girls saw a steeper decline in scores. A similar pattern occurred in state math assessments, according to an Associated Press analysis.

Schools had largely closed the gender gap in math and science, but it widened in the years following the pandemic as special programs to engage girls lapsed.

On a NAEP survey of students, a shrinking percentage of eighth grade students said they regularly took part in inquiry-based learning activities in the classroom. The pandemic disrupted schools’ ability to create those hands-on learning experiences for students, which are often critical to understanding scientific concepts and processes, said Christine Cunningham, senior vice president of STEM learning at the Museum of Science in Boston.

Still, she noted declines across subjects began well before schools closed in 2020.

“We don’t know exactly what the cause of it is, but it would be incomplete to assume that if we hadn’t had COVID, the score would not have gone down,” Cunningham said. “That’s not what the data showed even before the pandemic.”