Maine students in 2024 had the lowest test scores in three decades in both reading and math, according to data from the nation’s report card

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, pronounced nape), which is administered by the U.S. Department of Education, released national and state-by-state results Wednesday.

The test is administered every two years to a representative sample of fourth and eighth graders, and reading and math scores are reported on a scale of 0-500.

The most recent test results paint a grim picture of academic performance for Maine students. In three of four testing categories, Maine students had the lowest average scores since 1992, when NAEP results were first reported. In 2022, Maine was the only state to have record lows in all four testing categories, and according to 2024 data, scores have only gotten worse.

Fourth grade students had the lowest average reading score since 1992, and the lowest score in math since 1996. Eighth grade students had the lowest scores ever in both reading and math.

That also means 10 percent fewer students statewide tested at or above grade level in both math and reading compared to pre-pandemic NAEP scores.

“The fact that scores have been declining for a while is a concern,” said Amy Johnson, co-director of the Maine Policy Education Research Institute. “This is not just a one-time blip. National scores have also been declining, but Maine averages have fallen faster and are now below the national average in several areas. Fourth grade scores are particularly bleak.”

As Johnson said, low scores seem to be a nationwide trend. Students are still underperforming in all grade levels compared to pre-pandemic scores.

All students who took the NAEP tests last year had their education disrupted to some degree by the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth graders were in kindergarten when schools shut down, and the eighth graders were in fourth grade.

Maine scores saw large declines in 2022, and in 2024, those declines either held steady or got worse, making it one of 14 states where students are performing significantly below the national average.

NAEP scores test a representative sample of students from across the state, which in Maine amounted to approximately 1,700 students in 2022, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

How to interpret NAEP results

One reason for the consistently declining scores might be that Maine’s standards are drifting away from what’s being tested on NAEP, and so part of what is being captured is a difference in what Maine thinks is important compared to the NAEP test content, Johnson said.

In a recent meeting of the Maine Legislature’s Education and Cultural Affairs Committee, members questioned the Maine Department of Education on its minimum standards. School districts can go beyond what the state requires, but since Maine prioritizes local control, the state does not keep track of local education requirements.

Looking at Maine’s state level test results, about two-thirds of Maine students (65 percent) were considered “at or above expectations” in reading, which paints a different picture than NAEP, Johnson said.

NAEP offers a high-level snapshot of student performance, which can’t offer a school-level or even district-level perspective on performance. State assessments might be more relevant to educators in gauging performance, but Maine’s state assessment results are not broken down by grade level and assessments have changed every few years, making it difficult to track long-term learning trends.

Results by grade and subject level:

Fourth grade math

In 2024, the average score among Maine fourth graders for math was 233, below the national average of 237. Last year, just a third of students tested at grade level (which according to NAEP is calculated as the percentage of students in the “at or above proficient” category), compared to the national average of 39 percent of students who tested at grade level.

In comparison, about 42 percent of fourth grade Mainers tested at grade level in math in 2019, the last recorded pre-pandemic test year.

Fourth grade reading

The average reading score for fourth graders nationwide was 214 on a scale of 0-500, and just 210 for Maine students.

That means only 26 percent of students were reading at grade level in the state, which is a significant drop since 2019, when 36 percent of students tested at or above grade level.

Before 2019, Maine students consistently tested better than the national average in reading. consistently.

Eighth grade math

This was the only category where Maine students did not perform significantly worse than the national average. Maine’s eighth grade math score was 273 compared to the national average of 272.

About 25 percent of students performed at grade level in 2024, representing the only improvement in scores from 2022, when 24 percent of students were at grade level.

However, pre-pandemic, the state’s math scores were consistently higher than the national average by several points. For example, in 2000, Maine’s average score was 281, 10 points above the national average at the time.

Eighth grade reading

The average reading score for eighth graders nationwide last year was 257 on a scale of 0-500, and 255 for Maine students.

That means only 26 percent of students in the state were reading at grade level, which is a significant drop since 2019, when 36 percent of students tested at or above grade level.

Every year until 2019, Maine students consistently tested above the national average in reading — a likely indication of pandemic-era learning loss.