America’s youngest readers are bouncing back, national test shows

Nine-year-old students in the United States have posted their first significant academic gains since the COVID-19 pandemic, with reading scores returning to pre-pandemic levels, according to new results from a key national assessment.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often called the Nation’s Report Card, found that 9-year-olds improved in both reading and math between 2022 and 2025 on its long-term trend assessment. The recovery was driven by the lowest-performing students, who had fallen furthest during the pandemic. 

The trendline isn’t all positive, however. The new NAEP scores for 13-year-olds showed no improvement in either subject and remain below pre-pandemic levels.

The long-term trend assessment, released June 10 by the US Department of Education, does not break out state-level results. North Carolina performed at or above the national average on the most recent state-level NAEP from 2024. Those results show that eighth graders scored above the national average in math — 276 versus 272 — while fourth and eighth graders tracked the national average in reading, at 213 versus 214 and 255 versus 257, respectively.

But state testing since then shows North Carolina’s readers still losing ground. The average student in grades three through eight reads roughly two-thirds of a school year behind where students were in 2019, a gap that was still growing as of spring 2025, according to the Education Scorecard, a district-level analysis from researchers at Harvard, Stanford, and Dartmouth released in May.

The same analysis ranks North Carolina ninth among states in math growth since 2022 but 22nd in reading. On the state’s own end-of-grade exams, less than half of third graders read at grade level.

State education officials have acknowledged the problem. Michael Maher, chief accountability officer for the NC Department of Public Instruction, told the Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education in April that North Carolina’s NAEP reading trend is “in the wrong direction,” even as the state’s math performance sits at or above the national average.

Robert Luebke, director of the Center for Effective Education at the John Locke Foundation, has pointed to North Carolina receiving roughly $6.2 billion in federal COVID-19 relief for its schools, with at least $1.25 billion set aside specifically to address learning loss. Luebke said that the money produced little measurable academic recovery.

“North Carolina reading scores are traceable to numerous challenges,” said Luebke. “First, teachers have only recently been getting training in the science of reading. Second, while North Carolina received billions in COVID-19 relief funding, very little was spent on tutoring or other interventions to actually redress academic deficiencies. As such, scores are not where they need to be.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green has said that the state’s signature reading reforms simply haven’t had time to register on national tests. Under the 2021 Excellent Public Schools Act, more than 44,000 teachers, administrators, and coaches completed roughly $50 million in training on the science of reading, with the final cohort finishing in 2024. Early-grade screening data show North Carolina students in grades 1-3 outperforming national peers, though gains shrink by second and third grade.

Green has predicted that the 2026 Nation’s Report Card will reflect those investments. That test is being administered now, with results expected in early 2027.

The Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Education, which is reviewing student advancement and accountability as part of its 10-month study, is due to deliver its final report in February 2027.

“America’s youngest readers are bouncing back, national test shows” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.