The average math scores for 13-year-olds showed the largest drop in 50 years, now down to the same number in 1990. Reading scores tumbled as well, dropping to 2004 levels, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The declines were the largest ever recorded by the NAEP and reflect differences between the 2019–20 school year and that of 2022–23.

“The ‘green shoots’ of academic recovery that we had hoped to see have not materialized, as we continue to see worrisome signs about student achievement and well-being more than two years after most students returned for in-person learning,” said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics in a statement. “There are signs of risk for a generation of learners.”

While math showed the biggest declines, reading scores for the lowest-performing students were nearly as worrisome, coming in lower than those from 1971, the first year data was collected. Officials note the percentage of 13-year-olds who read for fun has also dropped precipitously over the past decade.

“Reading for fun is strongly associated with higher achievement,” explained commissioner Carr. “Aside from its academic effects, reading opens the mind and the heart to new ways of seeing and thinking about the world. Many of our young people will never discover latent passions or areas of interest without reading broadly on their own time.”

The lower math scores were across the board, affecting all regions of the country and all ethnicities. Reading scores were more pronounced for Black, multiracial, and white students. Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and Alaska Native students, however, saw scores that were “not measurably different.”

The NAEP monitors student performance in these two testing areas to gauge how the performance of students has changed over time. Assessments are based on age, not grade.