(DailyEmailNews.com) – The latest Nation’s Report Card revealed a shocking decline in American students’ performance as despite billions in federal funding, they are falling behind in reading skills and barely improving in math scores.
This alarming trend exposes the failure of liberal education policies and the devastating impact of pandemic-era school closures on children’s future.
The 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) findings paint a grim picture of the state of education in America.
Despite massive federal investments aimed at recovery, students continue to fall behind, particularly in reading.
The number of eighth-grade students with “below basic” reading skills has reached a disturbing high, raising serious questions about the effectiveness of current educational strategies.
Perhaps most concerning is the widening achievement gap between high-performing students and those struggling to keep up.
This growing divide threatens to leave countless American children behind, potentially impacting their future success and the nation’s competitiveness on the global stage.
In a rare moment of candor, the Department of Education (DOE) admitted the gravity of the situation. It stated:
“Today’s NAEP results reveal a heartbreaking reality for American students and confirm our worst fears: not only did most students not recover from pandemic-related learning loss, but those students who were the most behind and needed the most support have fallen even further behind.”
The numbers are staggering: 33% of eighth graders and 40% of fourth graders now have “below basic” reading skills, the highest percentages in decades.
These students lack fundamental abilities such as making simple inferences or understanding basic vocabulary – skills essential for success in higher education and the workforce.
The overall picture remains bleak, while math scores have shown slight improvement, with many students regaining some lost ground since the pandemic.
Most fourth—and eighth-graders still perform below pre-pandemic 2019 levels in math and reading, highlighting the long-lasting damage caused by school closures and remote learning.
“The news is not good,” admitted Peggy Carr, National Center for Education Statistics commissioner.
She added, “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic, and when we are seeing signs of recovery, they’re mostly in math, and largely driven by high-performing students.”
Furthermore, the NAEP results also expose the stark reality of how socioeconomic factors impact student performance.
Wealthier students consistently outperformed their peers from lower socioeconomic backgrounds in both reading and math.
This disparity underscores the need for targeted interventions and a reevaluation of how educational resources are allocated.
Chronic absenteeism remains a significant hurdle, with lower-performing students more likely to miss school.
“The data are clear. Students who don’t come to school are not improving,” Carr stated, highlighting the urgent need to address this issue to improve both academic achievement and social development.
As Americans grapple with these troubling findings, it is clear that the current approach to education is failing children.
The billions of dollars poured into recovery efforts have yielded minimal results, calling into question the wisdom of throwing more money at a broken system.
Many states are pursuing evidence-based reading instruction inspired by Mississippi’s past successes.
The NAEP results serve as a wake-up call for parents, educators, and policymakers alike.
Americans must demand accountability from educational institutions and push for reforms that prioritize academic excellence over political agendas.
Copyright 2025, DailyEmailNews.com
