The COVID-19 pandemic set academic progress back decades for fourth and eighth graders, according to the results of national math and reading assessments administered during the pandemic.
The math scores of both fourth and eighth graders nationwide fell by the largest amount on record. The achievement gap widened for Black and Hispanic students and for the lowest performing students.
Every two years the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)tracks student progress in math and reading. The assessment examined the progress of a sample of more than 116,000 fourth graders and 111,000 eighth graders, allowing for comparison across all states and some cities. The pandemic delayed the 2021 test to 2022, so this is the first look at fourth and eighth grade student performance in math and reading since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
