The Reasons Behind the Poor NAEP Scores, According to Teachers

By Edér Del Prado — February 11, 2025 1 min read

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The recent release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores showing a continued drop in reading scores sparked a lot of conversation on social media. While students’ reading abilities were on the decline prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the learning losses experienced during the pandemic only further exacerbated the downward trend.

Educators on social media had plenty of ideas on what issues are contributing to the disappointing results. Failure to hold back struggling students, a lack of time to properly give lessons, the influence of technology, and even a decrease in opportunities for physical activity were all named as contributors to the problem.

Below are a few highlights from some of those conversations.

Students aren’t being met where they are

A number of teachers believed the standards that students are being expected to meet aren’t matching up with skills they currently possess.

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This is because they [the NAEP] are making the standards too high each year for each grade. ... This is a year when they are still supposed to be mastering more complex phonics skills, but instead need to answer high-order thinking questions and support those answers with evidence from the text. They still struggle to write complete sentences, much less formulate complex written responses. Stop raising the standards and let [students] learn based on what their age level is actually capable of.

I teach 1st grade and many of my students are not ready for 1st grade, even though they went to kindergarten! My students will grow, but most of them will still be below grade level on DIBELS [a reading assessment]. Parents are not as involved any more with their kid's education and are not helping them at home!

The students do not care about standardized tests. The questions are worded in such a confusing manner that it is hard to answer. Not to mention that the answer choices are convoluted.

Until schools start retaining students who are not ready to move on to the next grade level, this will continue. COVID did not help, but students were reading below grade level way before. ... It is easy to blame the teachers. How about mandating parent involvement in their child’s education? ...

Universal kindergarten screening for dyslexia, early identification of reading and language disabilities, and adequate/appropriate remediation services provided by trained reading specialists as early as possible could be more effective than the wait-to-fail model.

Today’s learning environment isn’t helpful for many students

Teachers cast a wide array of blame for the consistently poor scores, but one common theme among the responses was that the current environment for many students isn’t conducive for proper learning. Lack of exercise, technology, and standardized testing all do today’s students a disservice, commentators said.

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They keep getting rid of physical exercise opportunities during the day. I had great success when my students could run a few laps or do jumping jacks before sitting down to concentrate.

Kids spend too much time on electronics. [Also,] many parents don’t read to their kids anymore.

At some point we will have to admit [that] our newly rediscovered sedentary lifestyle, due to technology, has disrupted the flow in which students receive and produce language.

We lose more instructional days than ever for standardized testing and benchmarking, while at the same time, standards and expectations have been raised.