US: the final-year class of 2024 read worse than in any test since 1992
The national reading average was 282.6 against 292.1 in 1992. In grades 4 and 8 the change since 1992 is within the error. Seniors' maths is at a low too, the lowest since 2005, when the test changed.
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This is the last school measure before work and college, and it is the one that fell below every year: in grades 4 and 8 reading is at the early-1990s level, at graduation worse. The decline began before the pandemic: in 2019 seniors' reading was already significantly below 2015.
Bars: change in the average reading score from 1992 to 2024 in grades 4, 8 and 12; scores of different grades are not compared with each other.
- US: reading, grade 12 points
1992: 292.1; 2024: 282.6
- US: reading, grade 8 points
1992: 260.0; 2024: 258.0
- US: reading, grade 4 points
1992: 216.7; 2024: 215.0
- US: maths, grade 12 points
2005: 150.0; 2024: 146.9
NCES, National Assessment of Educational Progress: national mean scores; significance as NCES reports it against the first and previous year. Grade 12 reading: 10 tests since 1992; grade 12 maths is comparable only from 2005 (150.0 → 146.9).
Only those who reach grade 12 are tested: if fewer drop out, weaker students who used to leave are in the sample, and part of the fall may be composition. The test carries no stakes for students. The low is largely the weakest: the strongest 10% of seniors are at the 1992 level. US 15-year-olds' reading in the OECD test did not fall — a different age and scale.
A question for this picture
And adults who left school long ago? Reading got worse in many countries; numeracy did not.