Elementary and middle schools’ reading scores have been stuck at a low point since the disruptions of the pandemic era, more than five years ago. That’s starting to change, according to a new report from the testing company NWEA.
The company’s latest analysis of its MAP Growth tests show that reading scores across grades K-8 crept up slightly between spring 2025 and spring 2026.
Math scores on the tests, which have been on a slow climb since the pandemic, continued to rise in grades K-5, but stagnated in middle school.
“This is, to me, a real glass-half-empty, glass-half-full situation, depending on how optimistic you want to be,” said Megan Kuhfeld, director of growth modeling and data analytics at NWEA, and an author on the report.
The reading growth suggests “we’re turning a corner,” she said. But it’s only a small improvement, making up between 15-33% of the learning loss that students sustained, depending on the grade level. Reading scores across grades 1-8 are still below pre-pandemic numbers.
“This is a good sign, and we don’t want to just say, ‘Well, things are solved,’” Kuhfeld said.
The findings come as other national and international tests show tentative signs of progress for younger students—even as older students seem to struggle more.
In June, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s long-term trend assessment showed 9-year-olds improved in reading and math, while 13-year-olds’ scores in both subjects stayed the same.
But other data show older teenagers are losing ground. Reading scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, released this month, dropped 14 points for U.S. 15-year-olds, which translates to six or seven months of learning. The United States’ decline was in line with other industrialized nations.
“There’s still reason to be concerned,” Kuhfeld said.
Achievement has ‘fundamentally changed’ in the post-COVID era
It might seem evident that today’s elementary school students are doing better than previous cohorts, who were in preschool or kindergarten during the bulk of pandemic-era disruptions.
Kids who were in 1st or 2nd grade last year never experienced months of remote learning, or had to learn to read through a screen.
But their reading performance is still lower than that of elementary and middle schoolers pre-pandemic, suggesting that something has “fundamentally changed” in the post-COVID era, Kuhfeld said.
“The biggest question for me is, is this something that’s being driven by schools? Or is this something that’s been driven by social media, kids not reading books at home, parents on apps?” said Kuhfeld.
It’s a question education experts and pundits are regularly debating, as NAEP, PISA, and other large-scale tests show a reading slump that started just over a decade ago. The pandemic accelerated the decline, but it didn’t create it. Theories about its origins run the gamut, from the loosening of federal accountability policy to the rise of social media to the ongoing effects of the 2008 recession.
The new NWEA analysis does show a significant bright spot: Reading scores for the lowest-performing students, those at the 10th percentile, also improved.
That’s a departure from past results. Until 2025, the gap between the highest-performing students and the lowest-performing students was widening in reading, with the lowest-performers’ achievement dropping year over year while the highest-performers’ scores stayed consistent. (NAEP tests have shown a similar growing gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring students.)
The 2026 data also show that students across demographic groups made progress in reading, with Black and Hispanic students and students from low-income backgrounds making some of the largest gains.
This growth, the report reads, offers “a promising sign that recovery is possible.”
