Disappointed but not surprised on NAEP math scores

My reporting for the last two years points to big problems with math

Last year, when I interviewed Emily Hanford for Edutopia, my first question to her was something like, “You found there’s a problem with how children are learning to read…” And she stopped me. “No, I found a problem with how children are being taught to read,” she said. Her reporting showed a major flaw with the method teachers had learned to teach early readers.

And over the last two years, in my reporting I have found a problem—well, actually several problems—with how many children are being taught to do math. But that’s not the only issue depressing math scores in the latest round of assessment for high school seniors in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the NAEP or Nation’s Report Card. Think of math instruction as the icing on a very depressing cake.

The latest round of NAEP test results in reading and math reveal a harrowing future for students near the end of their k-12 schooling: they might be more unprepared for college and career than they have been in a generation. On the 2024 test, the number of students at the highest level of achievement, NAEP Proficient, has shrunk, while the number of students falling into the lowest category, NAEP Below Basic, is the highest it’s been in 20 years. Forty-five percent of high school seniors—nearly half—fall into the lowest category.

From NAEP: “In 2024, the average mathematics score for the nation at grade 12 was 3 points lower than in 2019. Compared to the mathematics assessment in 2005, the average score was 3 points lower in 2024. NAEP scores are also reported at five selected percentiles to show score trends by lower- (10th and 25th percentiles), middle- (50th percentile), and higher- (75th and 90th percentiles) performing students. Compared to 2019, scores were lower at all of the selected percentiles except for the 90th percentile.”

My math-focused reporting over the last couple of years points to a couple of big problems that are likely contributing to these low scores culminating at the end of schooling, so I thought I’d outline them here, all in one place. I don’t address some of the other big factors that NAEP and others point out that could also be contributing, like the still-high rates of absenteeism that started with the Covid school closures. But the decrease in achievement began before the pandemic, and my reporting suggests that there are key happenings inside classrooms affecting students’ long-term success in math.

Here’s what some of my reporting has found:

1. Secondary schools are chronically short on math teachers.