National math and reading scores decline for 13-year-olds

Math and reading scores among the nation’s 13-year-olds had taken another blow amid declining scores exacerbated by pandemic learning loss, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Math scores had the largest drop since the federal government began its assessments in 1978. NAEP found the average math scores for 13-year-olds dropped by 9 points from 280 to 271 between the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 academic school years. The highest point available for each test is 500.

Average reading scores for 13-year-olds fell four points from 260 to 256 over the same amount of time. It’s the lowest point since 2004.