Math Scores for U.S. 4th and 8th Graders Decline, Similar Trends Seen in Wisconsin

Tuesday, December 10th, 2024 -- 12:01 PM

(Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) Math scores for U.S. fourth and eighth graders declined significantly last school year, compared to 2019, according to the latest results from the National Center for Education Statistics, or NCES.

According to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, the NCES data is not broken down by state, but the trends it points out can be seen in Wisconsin.

Since before the COVID-19 pandemic’s widespread school shutdowns, the average mathematics score for fourth graders has declined by 18 points. Scores for eighth graders declined by 27 points.

Students in the United States are also performing significantly worse in math than their counterparts in other countries. Among 63 education systems, average scores in 21 systems were higher than the U.S. average for fourth graders.

Among 45 education systems, average scores in 11 systems were higher than the U.S. average for eighth graders. “Globally, we are seeing declines in achievement, even in traditionally high-performing systems,” NCES Commissioner Peggy Carr said in a statement.

The sharpest declines among U.S. schools are in the lowest-performing districts. That mirrors the results in the Nation’s Report Card. Score gaps between high- and low-performing fourth-graders widened in mathematics by 35 points and science by 26 points. 

At eighth grade, low-performing students’ scores declined 19 points in mathematics between 2019 and 2023 but were not measurably different in science.

A report released earlier this year by researchers at Stanford and Harvard found Wisconsin reading achievement scores are returning back to 2019 levels, but students are still struggling to make up for pandemic learning losses in math.

Wisconsin public school student proficiency rates in math were 49 percent during the 2023-24 school year, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.

Students participating in Wisconsin’s Private School Choice Programs last school year had a 28 percent proficiency rate in math, according to DPI data.

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