Report: Student Reading Scores Hit Lowest Level in 36 Years

WASHINGTON — American students’ reading performance has dropped to its lowest level in more than three decades, according to a new national report that says academic decline began years before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted schools.

The 2025 Education Scorecard, released by researchers at Harvard University, Stanford University and Dartmouth College, found eighth-grade reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have fallen to their lowest levels since 1990. Fourth-grade reading scores have dropped to levels last seen before 2003.

Researchers said the nation entered a “learning recession” around 2013, when progress in math and reading stalled and student achievement began to decline. The report analyzed test scores from about 35 million students in grades 3 through 8 from 2022 through 2025.

“The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion in student achievement,” said Tom Kane, faculty director of Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research. “The ‘learning recession’ started a decade ago.”

The report found reading scores had already been declining before the pandemic, with losses between 2017 and 2019 matching the pace of declines recorded during the pandemic years.

Researchers said academic recovery since the pandemic has been uneven. Wealthier and highest-poverty school districts showed the largest gains, while middle-income districts improved the least on average. Those districts included systems where 30% to 70% of students receive federally subsidized lunches.

The report said federal pandemic relief funding likely contributed to recovery in many high-poverty districts. Without the aid, researchers said, achievement levels in many low-income districts likely would have remained at 2022 levels.

Math scores rebounded more quickly, returning to pre-2013 improvement rates between 2022 and 2024. Reading scores continued declining through 2024 before showing early signs of improvement in 2025.

Researchers attributed some reading gains to “science of reading” reforms emphasizing evidence-based literacy instruction. States including Maryland, Louisiana, Tennessee and Kentucky recorded reading improvements while implementing broad literacy reforms, the report said.

The report also identified chronic absenteeism as a continuing obstacle to recovery. About 23% of students were chronically absent during the 2024-25 school year, down from pandemic-era highs but still above the pre-pandemic rate of 15%.