This summer, the nation received the kind of news it is not used to: apparent improvements in test scores. Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s long-term trend assessments (NAEP LTT) released in June showed that nine-year-olds’ scores in 2025 improved substantially in both reading and math. Might these scores mark the beginning of a new era in U.S. education?
We can always hope, but a careful look at the test-score patterns over the past 15 years suggests otherwise. During the 1990s and 2000s, U.S. student achievement increased steadily. After 2013, however, test scores started declining, and during the pandemic, as is well known, they took a large hit — bringing test scores back to early-2000s levels.
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