“The decline in American public education is getting worse. More dispiriting evidence came Tuesday with the latest Nation's Report Card -- aka National Assessment of Educational Progress -- showing a third of high-school seniors lack basic reading skills and nearly half can't do rudimentary math.
Many states have dumbed down their standardized tests to make schools look better, but NAEP provides a painful reality check. In 2024, 45% of twelfth-graders performed "below basic" in math, and 32% in reading. Eighth-grade science scores were hardly better: 38% rated below basic.
In all three exams, students scored on average lower than on the most recent exam in 2019. Reading scores were about 10 points lower than when the exam was first administered in 1992. Declines were bigger among students who were lower performers, causing achievement gaps to grow. One silver lining: Scores at charter schools mostly didn't fall.
Only about a third of high school seniors are prepared for college in either reading or math, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Colleges are adding introductory courses to teach what students should have learned in high school. Even Harvard teaches basic algebra.
The latest NAEP report tracks with the fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores released in January, which showed test scores have continued to decline since 2022. While schools nationwide have received hundreds of billions of dollars from the feds and states to address pandemic learning loss, a record number of eighth-graders can't read.
High school seniors tested last year entered high school in 2020 and no doubt were harmed by school shutdowns. But reading and math scores have been sliding since 2013. One problem is the lowering of academic standards for students. Harvard's Tom Kane tells us one culprit is "reduced accountability."
An emphasis on "equity" has led some school districts to adopt no-grading and no-homework policies in lower grades. Schools have reduced graduation requirements and inflated grades across the board. The result: High-school graduation rates increased by some 14 percentage points from 1991 to 2023, even as students are less prepared for college.
Wisconsin, Illinois and New York have lowered their standards for rating proficient on state tests. Massachusetts, once a public-education leader, has eliminated state tests -- as if comparative results might be upsetting.
Cultural factors may also contribute to declining scores. Classroom behavior has worsened in recent years. Children are spending more time on social media after (and sometimes during) school and less time reading for pleasure. Absenteeism has increased. More than 30% of seniors reported missing three or more days of school in the last month, according to the NAEP report.
All of this ought to be a five-alarm fire about America's future. A country that fails to educate half of its own children while also banning immigrants is destined for decline.
As the late Sen. Bob Dole once famously said in another context, "where's the outrage?"” [1]
It is possible that this conclusion is putting the cart before the horse, as companies bring in educated foreigners and leave educated Westerners stranded. If that changes now, the value of education will rise and Westerners will start studying again. A shift in hiring practices could cause companies to increase salaries and benefits for native-born workers to attract and retain talent, potentially increasing the incentive for education.
1. Another K-12 Education Disaster. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 10 Sep 2025: A14.
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