One of the most striking features of today’s troubling report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on student achievement in public and private schools in 2024 is the much lower percentage of students scoring “proficient” on the NAEP tests than on many states’ own 2024 standardized exams.
The federally funded assessment is administered every two years in math and reading to a demographically representative sample of fourth graders and eighth graders in every state, allowing for state-to-state comparisons and the tracking of states’ performance over time. The 2024 assessment was given between late January and early March that year. NAEP reports scores in four categories: “below basic,” “basic,” “proficient,” and “advanced.”
Nationally, NAEP reading scores failed to recover toward pre-pandemic levels, with 30 percent of fourth graders scoring proficient or advanced, down from 32 percent in 2022. Twenty-nine percent of eighth graders reached those levels, the same as in 2022.
Performance declined or was flat at all achievement levels, but those at the bottom lost the most ground: 33 percent of eighth graders scored “below basic,” the largest percentage of students in that reading category in NAEP’s 32 years of testing reading.
There were modest improvements in math. Thirty-nine percent of the nation’s fourth graders were proficient or advanced in 2024, up from 35 percent two years earlier. Twenty-seven percent of eighth graders scored proficient or advanced, compared to 26 percent in 2022. But the improvements were driven largely by the nation’s highest performers. The scores of the very lowest performers continued to decline.
And all scores were lower than those on NAEP tests prior to the pandemic, in 2019, when 40 percent of fourth graders and 33 percent of eighth graders were proficient in math and 34 percent of fourth graders and 32 percent of eighth graders were proficient in reading.
In addition to national summaries, NAEP reports student achievement for each state, where NAEP proficiency rates ranged from a high of 51 percent in fourth-grade math in Massachusetts to a low of 14 percent in eighth-grade math in New Mexico.
For their part, states are required by federal law to administer their own standardized tests in math and reading to many of their students annually. And while in a handful of states more students achieved proficiency on at least one 2024 NAEP test than on their own state assessments, in most states, students met proficiency standards at significantly higher rates on their states’ own 2024 tests, especially in reading.
In nearly three-quarters of the states, proficiency rates on state reading assessments were at least 15 percentage points higher for either fourth or eighth grade than they were on NAEP reading tests. In Virginia, 72 percent of the state’s eighth graders were proficient in reading, more than double the percentage of the state’s students proficient on the 2024 NAEP test in that grade and subject. Iowa reported more than three-fourths of its eighth graders proficient in reading in 2024, compared to less than a third of the states’ students on NAEP.
In fourth-grade reading, the average proficiency gap between state and NAEP tests—among states where proficiency rates are higher on state tests than on NAEP—widened from 15 percentage points in 2019 to 18 points in 2024, with increases in 26 states. At the eighth-grade level, the average gap grew from 18 points in 2019 to 19 points in 2024, with 22 states reporting a widening gap.
In math, the gaps were on average smaller and either remained steady or improved slightly since 2019, but about a third of states still experienced widening gaps. [See table below for a complete state-by-state listing of proficiency rates and gaps]
There are several potential contributors to the performance gaps between NAEP and state standardized tests.
State tests, for example, gauge performance against states’ curriculum standards, so they’re more closely tied to what students learn in the classroom than NAEP’s measures of more generic math and reading skills. Several states—Arizona, Alabama, Kentucky, Alaska, Florida, and Arkansas among them—have modified their tests or introduced new ones in recent years, making it difficult to accurately capture trends in student achievement.
Yet, perhaps more than any other factor, it’s lower state standards that explain the gulf in proficiency levels.
To achieve proficiency on the national assessment, a student must show “solid academic performance and competency over challenging subject matter.” But most states’ proficiency standards fall short of this benchmark, according to a 2022 analysis by the federal National Center for Education Statistics.
Most fall between NAEP’s lower, “basic” standard—requiring students to demonstrate only “partial mastery of fundamental knowledge and skills”—and NAEP’s “proficient” standard. In Virginia and Iowa—two states with some of the largest discrepancies between NAEP and state proficiency rates—reading standards fell below NAEP’s “basic” level.
What’s more, in Florida and other states, students can be performing “on grade level” without meeting the state’s “proficient” standard in the subject matter they’re studying.
A Florida fourth grader deemed to be on grade level in reading, for example, might only need to explain explicit details in simpler texts, while being considered “proficient” would require understanding implied details in more complex texts. In contrast, a NAEP-proficient student is expected to analyze complex texts and infer meaning at a higher level. Iowa defines proficiency as “adequate competency over the knowledge, skills, and abilities” for a student’s grade level. North Carolina distinguishes between “on grade level” performance and “college and career readiness,” where meeting the grade-level proficiency standard indicates “a sufficient understanding of grade level content standards” but “some support may be needed to engage with content at the next grade.” The state considers both standards to represent “proficiency.” [See table below for more state proficiency definitions]
Some states have gone further, lowering the passing grades on some or all of their standardized tests in recent years.
The Oklahoma State Department of Education reported significant gains in 2024, including a 24-point jump in the percentage of students achieving proficiency in fourth-grade reading since 2022 and across-the-board improvements over pre-pandemic levels. But the gains coincided with the state lowering its proficiency standards, which officials didn’t reveal when they released the improved test scores. State records obtained by an Oklahoma news organization revealed that the 2024 scores would have been the same as or slightly lower than 2023 results if officials hadn’t lowered the state’s standards. On NAEP, Oklahoma’s proficiency rates declined in reading and improved slightly in math between 2022 and 2024. But proficiency rates remain below pre-pandemic proficiency levels.
Similarly, New York reported across-the-board improvements in student achievement in 2024 after lowering its proficiency threshold in 2023. The state’s proficiency rates declined on half of the NAEP tests in 2024. Wisconsin also registered higher proficiency rates on its 2024 assessments after lowering its passing scores, only to have most of its NAEP scores decline in 2024, pointing to the value of an independent national measure of student achievement like NAEP.
What follows is a comparison of student proficiency rates on NAEP tests since 2019 and proficiency rates on each state’s standardized testing during that period.
Reading
Nationally, 30 percent of fourth graders and 29 percent of eighth graders scored proficient or advanced on the 2024 NAEP reading assessment. Fourth-grade proficiency declined by two percentage points from 2022, while eighth-grade proficiency remained unchanged.
Students in both grades continue to perform below 2019 pre-pandemic levels, when 34 percent of fourth graders and 32 percent of eighth graders scored proficient or advanced. Indeed, instead of recovering lost ground since 2022, scores in 42 states dropped farther from their pre-pandemic levels in at least one grade. Forty-six states remain behind their pre-pandemic levels in fourth grade reading, and 47 in eighth grade, with average declines of five percentage points each. Vermont experienced the steepest drop—falling from 40 percent proficiency in 2019 to 29 percent in 2024 in eighth grade.
Not surprisingly, given many states’ lower standards for proficiency than NAEP, many 2024 state tests painted a somewhat brighter picture than the NAEP results.
Reading proficiency rates on state assessments declined in 19 states in fourth grade and 22 states in eighth grade between 2022 and 2024. But they declined in 35 states in fourth-grade reading on NAEP tests during that period and in 31 states in eighth-grade reading.
In some states, proficiency rates lagged on both state and NAEP tests.
Massachusetts, where proficiency standards haven’t changed in recent years, is among three states where fourth-grade proficiency rates dropped by more than 10 percentage points between 2019 and 2024 on their tests, with 36 percent of its fourth graders scoring proficient in 2024, compared to 52 percent five years earlier. On NAEP, Massachusetts proficiency rates among fourth graders dropped by five percentage points, from 45 percent proficient in 2019 to 40 percent in 2024.
In eighth-grade reading, Kentucky was among seven states where 2024 proficiency levels remained at least 10 percentage points below pre-pandemic performance, with 41 percent of students scoring proficient, down from 63 percent in 2019. Kentucky is down 4 percentage points from pre-pandemic levels on the NAEP, from 33 percent proficient to 29 percent in 2024.
But several states appear to have made some genuine progress, raising proficiency rates on both NAEP and their state reading assessments.
This was particularly the case with Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana that focused intensively on improving early reading skills by implementing instruction based in the science of reading and introducing high-quality, content-based reading materials and statewide tutoring programs—though it’s not clear whether these steps caused the improvements in proficiency rates.
Tennessee, a recognized leader in the science of reading movement, had proficiency rates that were 7 percentage points higher in 2024 than 2022 on its reading tests, and the trends on the state’s tests mirrored those on the NAEP exams. Proficiency rates rose on both state tests and NAEP in Mississippi since 2022, while Louisiana was the only state to surpass pre-pandemic proficiency levels on the NAEP fourth-grade reading assessment.
Math
Math NAEP scores declined more sharply that reading scores during the pandemic, particularly at the eighth-grade level. But proficiency levels didn’t drop further on the 2024 NAEP tests, on average, like they did for reading. Thirty-nine percent of the nation’s fourth graders and 27 percent of eighth graders scored proficient or advanced on the 2024 NAEP math assessment. This represents a four-point increase at the fourth-grade level and a one-point increase at the eighth-grade level. In both grades, students continued to achieve below their pre-pandemic 2019 proficiency levels.
At the state level, only Illinois escaped declines between 2019 and 2022. Proficiency rates dropped an average of six points on the NAEP fourth-grade test and eight points on the eight-grade test.
The picture has improved since then, especially at the fourth-grade level. Forty-seven states improved NAEP math proficiency rates between 2022 and 2024 in fourth grade and 36 states did so in eighth grade. But proficiency rates remain below 2019 levels in 34 states in fourth-grade and in all but one state in eighth-grade.
Similarly, math proficiency rates rose on nearly every state’s standardized tests during the same period. While state math scores declined dramatically between 2019 and 2022, particularly in eighth grade, only in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, and Vermont in fourth grade and Arkansas, Michigan, and Missouri in eighth grade did state test scores decline between 2022 and 2024.
But students returned to pre-pandemic math proficiency levels in few states.
And many states that reported large gains in proficiency on either their fourth-grade or eighth-grade state math assessments between 2022 and 2024—including Oklahoma (+8 percentage points), Alaska (+19), New York (+17), and Wisconsin (+22)—lowered the scores on their tests required to earn proficiency ratings.
Other states appear to have made more genuine progress. Mississippi regained 10 percentage points in fourth-grade math since 2022, rising from 49 percent proficient pre-pandemic to 55 percent in 2024. In eighth grade, Mississippi gained 11 points compared to 2019 levels. Proficiency levels also rose on the 2024 NAEP tests at both grade levels. Pennsylvania gained back six points in eighth grade math on the state assessment and four points on the NAEP assessment, while Alabama gained back 7 percentage points on their state assessment and a striking 10-points on the NAEP for fourth graders since 2022.
Even with lower proficiency bars in some states and real improvements in others, 2024 proficiency levels remained below pre-pandemic rates on a majority of state standardized tests. At the fourth-grade level, only 13 states have met or surpassed their pre-pandemic proficiency performance, usually by narrow margins of one or two percentage points. Six states remain 10 or more points behind their 2019 benchmarks. At the eighth-grade level, only 11 states have surpassed their 2019 performance. The majority continue to lag, including Texas, where proficiency rates on the state’s tests are down 15 percentage points since 2019.
One of the more troubling findings from the 2024 state assessment cycle is the wide gap in proficiency rates between fourth and eighth grades, with eighth graders, on average, performing much worse than their fourth-grade counterparts. The gaps are far more pronounced in math than in reading. In New Jersey, for example, 45 percent of fourth graders were proficient in math, compared to only 19 percent of eighth graders. Similarly, in Washington, D.C., 29 percent of fourth graders achieved proficiency, while just 12 percent of eighth graders reached the same benchmark.
This trend is mirrored in NAEP results.