America’s students continue to struggle academically in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the latest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing little improvement in math and further declines in reading.

The assessment, often referred to as the nation’s report card, found that fourth-grade math scores showed a slight improvement, increasing by two points on a 500-point scale. However, the national average remains three points below pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, eighth-grade math scores remained stagnant, and reading scores dropped by two points at both the fourth- and eighth-grade levels.

“The news is not good,” Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, the agency responsible for the NAEP assessment, said in an Associated Press article. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”

The assessment, conducted every two years, measures student performance in math and reading at the fourth- and eighth-grade levels across the country. The most recent round of testing, administered in early 2024, highlights an ongoing struggle for many students to recover from learning disruptions caused by the pandemic.

One of the more concerning findings was the widening achievement gap between the highest- and lowest-performing students. While the top 10% of eighth-grade students in math improved their scores by three points, the lowest 10% saw their scores decline by six points.

“We are deeply concerned about our low-performing students,” Lesley Muldoon, executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, said. “For a decade, these students have been on the decline. They need our urgent attention and our best effort.”

Another trend is the growing number of students scoring below the “basic” proficiency level. In eighth-grade reading, one-third of students fell into this category, the highest proportion in the history of the assessment. These students struggle with fundamental literacy skills, such as making simple inferences about a character’s motivation in a short story or understanding the meaning of common vocabulary words like “industrious.”

“The data are clear,” Carr said. “Students who don’t come to school are not improving.”

Chronic absenteeism, a problem that has increased since the pandemic, has been linked to lower achievement scores. Additionally, fewer young students reported reading for enjoyment, a factor correlated with stronger literacy skills.

Despite the national struggles, some districts have made significant progress. In Washington, D.C., for example, fourth-grade math scores increased by 10 points, one of the few bright spots in the report.

Lehighton Area School District outperformed the state average in reading, with nearly 60% of third-grade students scoring proficient or above on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment reading exam in 2023-24. The state average stands at 55.8%.

Lehighton Assistant to the Superintendent Mary Figura credited the district’s success, in part, to the implementation of the University of Florida Literacy Institute intervention system, which provides targeted reading instruction across different skill levels. Additionally, the district has been working to address curricular gaps through the iReady program, now in its second year.

“Next year, we anticipate much higher scores as teachers and students become even more familiar with these tools,” Figura said.

In ELA, fourth-grade students demonstrated improvement, with 48.3% scoring proficient or advanced, up from 42.6% in 2023. Fifth-grade ELA scores also edged higher, with 53.5% reaching proficiency or above compared to the previous year’s 52.7%. Sixth-grade ELA saw gains, with 54.1% of students scoring proficient or above, exceeding the state average of 53%.

Other local districts are also looking for ways to boost student achievement.

In February, the Tamaqua Area School Board approved a comprehensive plan for 2024-2027, which aims for a 5% annual increase in both reading and math proficiency over the next three years.