Posted on Thursday, September 25, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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1 Comments
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New data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) – also known as “The Nation’s Report Card” – has further confirmed that American students are falling woefully behind. The data also provides more vindication for President Donald Trump’s stance that the Department of Education is failing at its job, and that more control over education should be returned to parents, states, and individual school districts.
As AMAC Newsline reported earlier this year, the 2024 NAEP for fourth and eighth graders found that an astonishing 69 percent of fourth-graders and 70 percent of eighth-graders scored at or below “basic” in reading — totaling the largest percentage of struggling students in the study’s history. Fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores dropped two points from 2022 and five points from 2019.
Meanwhile, in math, the 2024 test found that nearly 25 percent of students “do not reach the NAEP basic level, meaning they likely cannot identify odd numbers or solve a problem using unit conversions.”
New NAEP scores out this month for eighth grade science and 12th grade reading and math are similarly dismal. According to the test results, nearly 80 percent of high school seniors are not proficient in math, and nearly two-thirds are not proficient in reading.
Overall, just 35 percent of test-takers were rated “proficient” in reading, and the average score was the lowest in history. For 12th grade math, only 22 percent of students scored in the “proficient” range, and the average score was the lowest since 2005.
Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon explained that these results are yet more evidence that her department has failed at its job, and that drastic changes are needed to reverse the alarming decline in student performance – namely, empowering parents and local officials to take charge of education rather than being burdened by edicts from Washington. As McMahon noted, despite spending more than $3 trillion since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has overseen a steady decline in performance.
“Despite spending billions annually on numerous K-12 programs, the achievement gap is widening, and more high school seniors are performing below the basic benchmark in math and reading than ever before,” McMahon said. “The lesson is clear. Success isn’t about how much money we spend, but who controls the money and where that money is invested. That’s why President Trump and I are committed to returning control of education to the states so they can innovate and meet each school and students’ unique needs.”
In 12th grade reading, scores have dropped from an average of 292 points in 1992 to 283 points in 2024. The average score for 12th grade mathematics has decreased from 150 points in 2005 to 147 points last year. The average science score for eighth-grade students reached 154 points in 2019 but dropped to 150 points in 2024.
Sarah Parshall Perry, who serves as vice president of the parental rights organization Defending Education, explained that students are still suffering from schools forcing them to learn remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic – as well as from schools pushing identity politics into classrooms in recent years.
“For every parent that begged schools to reopen during the COVID pandemic, this news confirms what they already knew: kids would suffer, & irreparably so,” she said in a post on X. “As a new school year begins, a pall hangs over American education: it is failing our kids & robbing them of their futures. And no matter how much money we throw at the problem, the scores continue to bottom out. The social experimentation, lack of rigor, & identity politicking must end. If for no other reason than that we can no longer afford them.”
The average scores in all three categories tested by NAEP notably dropped after COVID. From 2019 to 2024, eighth-grade science scores dropped by four points, 12th grade reading scores dropped by two points, and 12th grade mathematics dropped by three points.
But the 2024 results show that, even as schools reopened and the pandemic lockdowns subsided, scores have not rebounded. From a broader historical perspective, the pandemic dip seems to have only accelerated a pre-existing trend.
All of that means that the Trump administration now has more evidence to support its position that the current education system is failing students – and the bureaucrats in D.C. who created the crisis will not be the ones to solve it.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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