MODESTO, CALIFORNIA — Scholars at Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth released the national Education Scorecard, an analysis of state test scores from grades three through eight across more than 5,000 school districts in 38 states, documenting a decade-long decline in U.S. reading performance and early signs of recovery in a small number of states and districts. Only five states and the District of Columbia recorded meaningful growth in reading test scores from 2022 to 2025, while nearly every state in the analysis saw improvements in math.

Nationally, students' reading achievement remains nearly half a grade level below pre-pandemic levels, and math achievement is only slightly above. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, reading test scores have been falling since 2013 for eighth graders and since 2015 for fourth graders.

"The pandemic was the mudslide that had followed seven years of steady erosion in achievement," said Harvard professor Thomas Kane. "The 'learning recession' started a decade ago, after policymakers switched off the early warning system of test-based accountability and social media took over children's lives," he said.

States and districts making progress have shifted toward phonics-based instruction and provided extra support for struggling readers. Louisiana, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana ordered schools to teach with a phonics-based approach known as the science of reading. States have also required screening for learning disabilities such as dyslexia and hired coaches to help teachers improve reading instruction. Florida, Arizona and Nebraska changed parts of their reading instruction but still saw scores fall.

Louisiana and Alabama were the only states where math scores in 2025 exceeded pre-pandemic levels. In Louisiana, 87% of traditional public school students attend districts where reading scores in 2025 are higher than in 2019. In 2022, Alabama's legislature enacted the Numeracy Act, which standardized math instruction, required regular testing and mandated intervention for students lacking adequate math skills.

In more than 400 U.S. school districts, including Modesto, California, reading or math growth outpaced demographically similar districts in the same state. Modesto revamped reading instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic and math instruction a couple of years earlier, created a department to help students still learning English, and paid educators $5,000 each to complete the LETRS program. Modesto's test scores grew by an amount equivalent to 18 weeks of learning in math and 13 weeks in reading, though overall scores remain far below grade level.

In Detroit, efforts focused on reading and attendance have contributed to rising scores. In 2016, students filed a lawsuit arguing they had been denied the right to read due to poor school conditions, resulting in a settlement of over $94 million. Settlement funds helped Munger Elementary-Middle School employ 18 educators who provide extra support in small groups, and an attendance agent contacts families of absent students by phone and home visits. Detroit's test scores have grown faster than in similar urban districts in Michigan but remain far below the national average.

"It took a lot to rebuild systems, and now kids are learning at higher levels, but I'm still not satisfied. And I think that's the next challenge: continuing to motivate, inspire and change things," said Detroit Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

"We made enormous progress as a country in terms of educational success from over a 30-year period. Test scores went up dramatically," said Stanford professor Sean Reardon. "The recovery of U.S. education has begun. But it's up to the rest of us to spread it," Kane said.