{"id":2617132,"date":"2026-06-22T08:15:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T12:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-years-post-covid-public-middle-schoolers-still-cant-read-or-do-math\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T08:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T12:21:30","slug":"5-years-post-covid-public-middle-schoolers-still-cant-read-or-do-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-years-post-covid-public-middle-schoolers-still-cant-read-or-do-math\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Years Post-Covid, Public Middle Schoolers Still Can&#8217;t Read"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F5-years-post-covid-public-middle-schoolers-still-cant-read-or-do-math%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2617132&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Recent results from the 2025 national Assessment of Educational Progress highlight ongoing challenges in U.S. public schools. While 9-year-old students have shown some improvements, their scores have only returned to pre-COVID levels and important achievement gaps remain across different demographic groups. Conversely, 13-year-olds&#8217; scores in reading and math have stagnated since 2023, with many results unchanged since the 1970s and 2012. The stagnation is partly attributed to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nyu-professor-if-youre-black-youre-not-safe-in-u-s-schools\/\" title=\"NYU Professor: \u2018If You\u2019re Black, You\u2019re Not Safe In U.S. ...\u2019\">pandemic-related school closures<\/a>, heavily influenced by political and union pressures, which hindered students\u2019 academic progress. Furthermore, the progress made in the early 2010s was compromised by the rapid adoption of educational reforms like the Common Core and social-emotional learning, which may have diverted focus from core academic skills. To address these issues,experts recommend a comprehensive approach emphasizing rigorous,knowledge-based curricula,regular assessments,personalized support,disciplined school environments,and parental rights. Such reforms aim to refocus education on fundamental principles rather than superficial fixes.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Last\u00a0week, the\u00a0National Center for Education Statistics released <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/ltt\/2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">results<\/a> from the 2025 National Assessment of Educational Progress Long-Term Trend Assessments. These\u00a0widely respected reading and mathematics\u00a0tests\u00a0have been\u00a0administered\u00a0periodically\u00a0to\u00a0representative samples of\u00a09-\u00a0and 13-year-old students\u00a0since the 1970s.\u00a0While\u00a0some student groups have made\u00a0promising\u00a0gains,\u00a0test results suggest that\u00a0our public schools continue to fall short for far too many children. <\/p>\n<p>Nine-year-old students\u00a0appear to be\u00a0headed in the right direction. Reading and mathematics scores for this group increased from 2022 to 2025, and scores in both subjects\u00a0remain\u00a0significantly higher than those recorded in the 1970s. While the\u00a0results for\u00a09-year-olds were\u00a0promising,\u00a0the most recent increase in reading scores merely rebounded to pre-COVID levels, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/kids-progressing-even-slower-in-reading-math-now-than-before-pandemic-new-study-shows\/\" title=\"New study reveals kids&#039; s... ... in ... and math post-....\">achievement gaps persist<\/a> across multiple student demographic groups.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, results for 13-year-old students\u00a0remain\u00a0appalling.  <\/p>\n<p>Student scores for 13-year-olds in reading or mathematics have not changed since 2023. Shockingly, the average reading score was not significantly different from the score recorded in 1971 and\u00a0remains\u00a0much lower than results reported in 2012 or 2020. This year\u2019s average math score was slightly better than the 1973\u00a0score, but\u00a0remains\u00a015 points lower than 2012 and ten points lower than 2020. <\/p>\n<p>COVID shutdowns account for part of the reason for stagnation among 13-year-olds. Despite multiple warnings that school shutdowns would create generational academic and economic harms, these students were the victims of pandemic-era governors who surrendered to teacher union demands that schools\u00a0remain\u00a0closed for in-person instruction.  <\/p>\n<p>The most <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/2021\/03\/one-governor-is-standing-in-the-way-of-opening-schools\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notorious<\/a> example is former North Carolina Governor and U.S. Senate candidate Roy Cooper, who consulted openly with North Carolina\u2019s National Education Association (NEA) affiliate to formulate his administration\u2019s school closure policy. As federal COVID relief dollars flowed to states like North Carolina, Cooper and other NEA-aligned governors allowed school districts to squander billions of dollars earmarked for academic remediation and recovery.  <\/p>\n<p>Yet, school shutdowns only tell part of the story. Average reading and mathematics scores among 13-year-olds began to\u00a0drop\u00a0after reaching a historic high in 2012, long before the pandemic. NAEP scores suggested that the nation\u2019s public schools had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/yellen-claims-its-our-job-to-explain-what-bidens-done-to-improve-the-economy\/\" title=\"Yellen claims &#039;it&#039;s our job&#039; to explain what Biden&#039;s done to improve the economy\">made meaningful progress<\/a> toward finally neutralizing the so-called \u201cmiddle school slump.\u201d Regrettably, that progress was short lived. Social and emotional learning (SEL), the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2019\/05\/30\/federally-funded-study-common-core-sunk-u-s-kids-test-scores\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Common Core State\u00a0Standards<\/a>, and other <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >large-scale educational experiments began<\/a> to spread rapidly during the 2010s and\u00a0likely railroaded\u00a0a decade of solid academic progress. <\/p>\n<p>That is why addressing the \u201cmiddle school slump\u201d requires a comprehensive strategy that refocuses on the fundamentals of education.<\/p>\n<p>First, schools should provide a knowledge-rich curriculum informed by rigorous state standards delivered primarily through direct instruction. Grading must accurately reflect student effort and mastery, and student performance should be assessed\u00a0regularly using\u00a0national\u00a0standardized tests\u00a0that measure literacy and numeracy skills, content knowledge, and analytical thinking. <\/p>\n<p>Second, schools\u00a0should offer multiple opportunities for academic acceleration and specialization, as well as dedicated and personalized instruction for special\u00a0needs\u00a0children. Students\u00a0who do not reach grade-level\u00a0proficiency\u00a0should have access to high-quality, individualized tutoring. All students, regardless of ability or circumstance, should graduate high school fully prepared to exercise their civic duties in adulthood.<\/p>\n<p>Third,\u00a0schools should be\u00a0orderly environments that are free of personal electronic devices and impose meaningful consequences for disruptive behavior. This\u00a0necessitates\u00a0knowledgeable and unbiased personnel that\u00a0maintain\u00a0high academic and behavioral expectations for all students and exercise professional independence from labor unions, trade associations, and advocacy organizations. <\/p>\n<p>Finally, schools should affirm parental rights, including the right to receive financial support to choose the educational environment that best meets the needs of their families.<\/p>\n<p>Overhyped fixes are all too common in education reform, but\u00a0they\u00a0are no substitute for schools that get the basics right.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Terry Stoops is the director of state affairs for Defending Education. Over the last two decades, he has held leadership positions in North Carolina and Florida focused on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/at-annual-meeting-largest-teachers-union-admits-its-an-activist-front\/\" title=\"At Annual Meeting, Largest Teachers Union Admits It&#039;s An Activist Front\">influencing state education policy<\/a> and championing parental rights through advocacy, research, and public commentary.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2025 NAEP results show mixed progress in student achievement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4211,"featured_media":2617133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-rdne-8500617-e1781637002331.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[5152,50757,81517,36519,64429],"class_list":["post-2617132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-education","tag-literacy-2","tag-middle-school","tag-pandemic-impact","tag-student-achievement"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/pexels-rdne-8500617-e1781637002331.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4211"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2617132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2617137,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2617132\/revisions\/2617137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2617133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2617132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2617132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2617132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}