U.S. Test Shows 9-Year-Olds Regain Pre-Pandemic Reading Scores While 13-Year-Olds Remain Below Average

Younger students have regained academic ground lost during the pandemic while older students' test scores remain stagnant, according to data released Wednesday by the federal government. Nine-year-olds returned to pre-pandemic reading scores and showed some recovery in math. Thirteen-year-olds recorded average scores in both subjects that stayed below pre-pandemic levels.

The long-term trends assessment, given every four years, measures skills of students at ages 9 and 13. Roughly 31,000 students in public and private schools took the test during the 2024-2025 school year. The assessment has remained largely unchanged since the 1970s, unlike the main Nation's Report Card that updates content to reflect current curricula.

Seventy-one percent of 9-year-olds reached the reading benchmark and 84 percent reached the math benchmark, both several percentage points above 2022 levels. Fifty-eight percent of 13-year-olds met the reading benchmark and 70 percent met the math benchmark, showing no statistically significant change from 2023.

Fourteen percent of 13-year-olds reported reading for fun every day, down from 27 percent in 2012. Among 9-year-olds, 37 percent said they read for fun daily, down from 53 percent in 2012.

Scores had already begun declining before the pandemic, peaking around 2012. The 13-year-olds tested last year were in second or third grade when pandemic disruptions began and returned to in-person classes in fourth or fifth grade. The 9-year-old group entered kindergarten or first grade after the most acute phase of the pandemic ended.

The executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board said schools should focus more on adolescent learners and middle-school outcomes. An eighth-grade math teacher and former board member noted that progress occurred from the early 1970s to 2012 and said similar improvement is possible again.