These analyses raise a variety of questions for future investigation, such as whether average math and reading scores will level out as we move further away from the heightened federal focus on school accountability and from the decreases observed following the COVID-19 pandemic. They also highlight a critical issue: limited data points hinder accurate long-term analysis. Without the reconstitution of NCES, this challenge could extend beyond the issues noted with science in this report to all subject areas, jeopardizing the ability to track and research student outcomes nationwide.

 

NCES data are critical to our understanding of U.S. students’ academic performance and allow for comparisons both at home and around the world. While nearly all U.S. states are required to assess their students’ performance annually, the assessments used for this purpose are generally not comparable from state to state and tend to change frequently, making them ill-suited for comparative or longitudinal analyses. Thus, NAEP Long-Term Trend (NAEP-LTT) and NAEP serve as the key means by which researchers and policymakers can make cross-state and over-time comparisons. On the global front, NCES’s international assessments serve as the main sources of data for understanding how U.S. students measure up against their international peers. Without NCES, these analyses would not be possible.

The full report, Trends in U.S. Students' Average Math, Reading, and Science Scores on NCES Large-Scale Assessments: 1998-2024, is available for download.