After years of declines, young students show gains in reading and math

Average reading and math scores for 9-year-old students rose from 2022 to 2025, according to the newest results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

New federal test scores show younger students are making gains in reading and math — after years of declines .

"I think this is an optimistic release," Matthew Soldner, acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told NPR.

Results from the long-term trend (LTT) report , released Wednesday, provide a national look at progress in reading and math for 9- and 13-year-old students. The tests, which students take on pencil and paper every few years, have asked many of the same questions since they were first given in the 1970s. The tests are part of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) and are nationally representative of student learning. More than 30,000 students took the exams between October 2024 and March 2025.

The younger students tested showed gains in both reading and math, "which is fantastic," said Soldner. What's notable is that students across the board improved their scores, including lower-performing kids.

"It is just so encouraging," he said. "Even though they're performing below average, [they] are trending upward."

One possible reason for the overall improvement, the report points out, is the students' age. They were 4 when the pandemic started in 2020 and didn't begin school until after most places had returned to full-time, in-person instruction. That means they didn't miss key lessons in literacy and math in the early years of elementary school.

These students gave researchers hope about the potential that the nation can build back some of the slide that began long before COVID-19 .