After years of steady declines in reading and math scores, new results from a national test of 9- and 13-year-olds offer tentative signs of recovery—9-year-olds are doing better in these two subjects than they were three years ago, and the lowest-performing students in this group are making large strides.
But the results, from the release of the 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress’ Long-Term Trend, tell a different story for 13-year-olds. These middle schoolers’ scores in reading and math have stagnated, showing no statistically significant changes from the last test administration in 2023.
“There is both a lot of work to be done and some positive signs,” said Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, in a call with reporters on Monday.
The long-term trend is one of the tests that students across the nation take periodically as part of NAEP, also known as the nation’s report card. It’s different from the “main” NAEP tests, which assess 4th and 8th graders in reading and math every few years.
While the main NAEP tests are updated regularly to reflect changes in states’ academic standards and teaching methods, the long-term trend assessment has remained the same since the 1970s, to allow for comparisons over the decades.
The long view of American student achievement shows that, in the post-pandemic landscape, 13-year-olds aren’t doing much better in school than they were 50 years ago.
Reading scores for this age group are at similar levels to those in 1971. In math, scores have stagnated after a steady decline that started in 2012—falling to levels that are “jarring,” said Lesley Muldoon, the executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board, during Monday’s press call.
“This isn’t just a pandemic story,” said Soldner, referencing this downward trend.
Other data have shown a similar shift. Main NAEP scores show peaks in math and reading around 2012 and 2013, and a falling-off after that. Last month, a report from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford warned that schools were in a nationwide “learning recession,” one that began long before the pandemic.
“The lack of progress among 13-year-olds raises huge questions,” said Muldoon, “and ought to serve as a catalyst for change.”
Has the ‘science of reading’ boosted student scores?
Recent long-term trend assessments have shown what experts have called a troubling pattern: Gaps between the highest- and lowest-performing students were widening. Struggling students were falling even farther behind their peers.
The pandemic worsened this trend. But now, for 9-year-olds, it’s reversing. In both reading and math, score gains were largest for students at the bottom of the distribution.
It’s hard to know what’s driving this shift. NAEP offers a descriptive picture of student achievement, but it’s not designed to make cause-and-effect claims.
Still, officials noted that the 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds taking the test were affected differently by pandemic-era education disruptions.
The 9-year-olds were 4 in 2020. They were in kindergarten and 1st grade during the first phases of school reopenings. “That is a very different experience than was for our 13-year-olds, where the pandemic really was the backdrop for their elementary school,” said Soldner.
It’s also possible that 9-year-olds’ growth could stem from policy changes that have unfolded over the past few years, said Muldoon. “We know from lots of reporting and lots of research that there’s been a significant movement nationwide to focus on early literacy,” she said.
The “science of reading” movement picked up steam as states rushed to support academic recovery. Over the past five years alone, more than 40 states have passed legislation requiring or encouraging schools to adopt evidence-based practices in reading instruction—often, with a focus on identifying and supporting students who are struggling the most.
This legislative movement is likely contributing to reading improvements among the lowest-performing 9-year-olds, said Kymyona Burk, a senior policy fellow of early literacy at the advocacy group ExcelinEd, and a member of NAGB.
“What gets measured gets done,” she said. “What you pay close attention to, you’re likely to see those types of improvements.”
Burk led the implementation of Mississippi’s early reading law, passed in 2013, as the state’s literacy director. In the years since, Mississippi has seen significant growth on NAEP’s 4th grade reading test, and has become a national model for other states adopting similar legislation.
Many states have rolled out statewide training for educators in teaching practices, collecting reading data, and identifying students early—an approach that can lead to more equitable learning environments for students, Burk said.
“In some of our lowest-performing schools, or lowest-resourced areas, there had not been a leveling of the playing field,” she said of Mississippi. “Now, regardless of where you are, you should have access to a teacher who knows how to teach reading.”
Middle schoolers need more support, experts say
While the uptick in 9-year-olds’ performance is good news, it doesn’t change the narrative that there’s an ongoing learning recession, said Scott Marion, a principal learning associate at the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, and a NAGB board member.
“One data point is not a trend,” Marion continued. He hopes to see similar shifts in the next 4th and 8th grade reading and math results, scheduled to be released in 2027.
Meanwhile, stagnant scores for 13-year-olds show that it’s “past time” to pay more attention to the upper grades, said Burk.
“It’s time to understand that there are students who will still go to middle school who have foundational skills gaps, and we haven’t done much to be able to support teachers to shore up those gaps at that level,” she said.
“In elementary school, we’ll have literacy coaches, tutors, interventionists. … In middle school, those supports drop off, but they’re still needed.”
In a 2025 EdWeek Research Center survey, only about half of educators said their schools or districts had dedicated staff to support middle and high school students struggling with foundational reading skills.
Research has shown that older students who struggle in math and reading often have trouble with basic skills, like manipulating fractions or automatically recalling times tables in math, or reading multisyllabic words in English class.
Still, it’s not just the lower-performing students whose scores are flat. The scores of higher-performing 13-year-olds haven’t moved since 2023, either.
“We can’t hesitate or wait if we’re going to turn these trends around,” Muldoon said.
