Indiana’s overall NAEP scores were not statistically different from its scores in 2022. The assessment indicates that Indiana’s scores, like most other states, remained the same. (Courtesy of the National Center for Education Statistics)
The National Center for Education Statistics released the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP, Wednesday morning. NAEP, which is known as the nation’s report card, provides a snapshot of fourth and eighth grade students’ progress in math, reading and science.
“The nation's report card is out, and the news is not good,” said NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr. “We’re not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic, and where we are seeing some signs of recovery, they’re mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”
Carr said scores around the country are largely stagnant. She added that achievement gaps between the highest and lowest performing students have grown, and chronic absenteeism remains a significant barrier to student success.
“Student absenteeism has improved, but we are still not where we were before the pandemic hit,” she said. “The data is clear. Students who don't come to school are not improving.”
Carr said the lack of student progress cannot solely be attributed to the pandemic because scores were already declining by 2019. And the challenges students currently face are complex. NAEP can show changes over time, but the assessment does not evaluate potential reasons for those changes.
This year, 59 percent of fourth grade students across the nation scored at or above basic in reading, and 76 percent scored at or above basic in math.
In eighth grade, 66 percent of students scored at or above basic in reading while 59 percent of students scored at or above basic in math.
Carr said the results show concerning downward trends for both grades in reading.
“The percentage of eighth graders reading below NAEP basic was the highest in the assessment’s history at 33 percent,” she said. “The percentage of fourth graders scoring below NAEP basic was the highest in 20 years: 40 percent.”
Students in Indiana scored slightly higher than the national averages in both math and reading. About 34 percent of Indiana's fourth grade students scored at or above proficient in reading, while 43 percent scored at or above proficient in math.
For eighth grade students, 33 percent scored at or above proficient in reading and 31 percent scored at or above proficient in math.
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Indiana Secretary of Education Katie Jenner said in a press release that Indiana’s data is promising.
“Over the past three years, Indiana has taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to solving our literacy crisis, and today we see that without a doubt, this work is making a difference,” she said. “This new data is just one more piece of evidence that the time and resources invested in this effort are paying off for students.”
However, Indiana’s overall NAEP scores were not statistically different from its scores in 2022. The assessment indicates that Indiana’s scores, like most other states, remained the same.
Moreover, significant gaps still exist for students who have low socioeconomic status or are economically disadvantaged. Indiana’s data shows students in those groups tend to perform below the 25th percentile at higher rates than their peers and above the 75th percentile at much lower rates.
“Overall, looking at the complete picture, these 2024 results clearly show that students are not where they need to be or where we want them to be,” Carr said. “Our students, for the most part, continue to perform below pre-pandemic levels, and our children's reading skills continue to slide in both grades and subjects. And most notably, our nation's struggling readers continue to decline the most.”
However, Carr said states and school districts can use NAEP data to learn more about what is working well for students who are making steady progress. She encouraged educators to ask what is working well for others and keep an open mind.
“We all need to come together as partners to catch these students up and improve achievement,” she said. “And these results, as sobering as they are, show that once you unpack them, there is hope.”
Kirsten is our education reporter. Contact her at kadair@wfyi.org or follow her on Twitter at @kirsten_adair.
