If you’re an edu-nerd like me, you probably already know about the new NAEP scores that came out this week. Average scores fell to all-time lows in 12th grade math and reading and 8th grade science.
The math and science tests are somewhat newer, going back to just 2005 and 2009, respectively. But the reading test was first administered in 1992, so pat you’re back America, our kids are hitting multi-decade lows in reading comprehension.
Not only that, but the scores of the lowest-performing students continue to fall faster and farther than other students. Achievement gaps continue to widen.
This is all super depressing, but what’s even more galling is that it’s just been met by a large yawn from our news media. I’m not commenting on the quality of the reporting here. Rather, I think it’s telling how little prominence the stories received given what I consider to be a national scandal. Unfortunately, the media editors do not agree:
- The results didn’t make the New York Times front page, but they had space for a lengthy expose on the Murdoch family succession battle.
- They also didn’t make it on The Washington Post, although they did have space to get the President’s reaction to the actor Tom Hanks being dis-invited to a West Point alumni celebration.
- The L.A. Times didn’t include it, but did have space for speculation about Howard Stern’s contract with Sirius XM.
- The Boston Globe was a no, but they had an important story about #RushTok, a corner of TikTok devoted to sorority rush season especially among Southern universities.
- USA Today didn’t cover it, but they had space to comment on actor Mark Ruffalo gaining weight for a new tv role.
There was also no front-page coverage in The Houston Chronicle, Arizona Republic, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, or The Dallas Morning News. I also couldn’t find any coverage on the homepages of CNN.com or FoxNews.com the day the results came out. The one exception I was able to find was the Wall Street Journal, which did seem to include it in their news round-up.
On some level, I get it. These recent scores were merely national-level results and they didn’t have any state or local angle. They’re also telling a pretty similar story to one we’ve known for a while now.
On the other hand, these are big pieces of new evidence! The 12th grade sample consisted of 24,300 twelfth-graders from 1,500 schools nationwide, and the 8th grade science results included 23,000 eighth-graders from 600 schools. These tests hadn’t been conducted post-pandemic, so they provided a unique lens on both a new subject (science) and a new grade level (12th) compared to what we had seen from other tests. It’s a big deal, and I suspect we’d see more outrage if some other indicators of American life had rapidly lost decades of progress.