Since 2013 NAEP math scores have dropped 11 points for eighth-graders and five points for fourth-graders—and the declines are steepest for the lowest-performing students. Twelfth-grade scores have dropped six points. Thirty-nine percent of eighth-graders and 45% of twelfth-graders scored below “basic” proficiency in 2024.
Scores were trending up before 2013, so what explains the slide? Researchers at the Center on Reinventing Public Education cite “lowered expectations, inflated grades, and obscured learning gaps.” In recent years, some states have abolished standardized tests or lowered proficiency standards that help keep schools accountable. Only six states still require high school exit exams, compared to 24 in 2013.
Schools also increasingly make it easier for students to get good grades no matter their performance. Especially after Covid, “schools confronted students’ academic struggles and demotivation by making math easier—exactly the opposite reaction to what students needed,” says the report. The truth comes out on standardized tests, and in college and the workplace where those skills are needed.
Students who struggle with math aren’t served well by being relegated to less rigorous “tracks” in early grades with no option to catch up. The report urges states to prepare all students for Algebra I by eighth grade. Some districts have dropped eighth-grade algebra in the name of equity, another example of low expectations harming students.
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