Today’s release of scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides a jarring reminder of the pandemic’s impact on academic achievement. To get a fuller sense of how disruptions of the past few years have affected student outcomes, FutureEd compiled and analyzed proficiency rates on state standardized tests and NAEP measures in the 39 states that have released their 2022 testing results. It represents the comprehensive picture available of post-pandemic academic performance. 

You can view our analysis, interactive tables and map here.

Among our findings:

• All but six of the states that have released testing results from spring 2022 saw declines in overall English language arts proficiency from 2019. Among fourth graders, three states showed gains on state testing, but not on the NAEP.
• All state tests but one showed declines in overall math proficiency rates between 2019 and 2022, and none improved in the fourth grade. Three states showed slight gains in eighth grade, but those were not reflected on the NAEP.
• Every state experienced a decline in proficiency rate in at least one section of the NAEP. In two thirds of states, proficiency dropped in both reading and math and in both fourth and eighth grades.