{"id":545,"date":"2026-06-22T13:11:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T13:11:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2026-06-22T13:11:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T13:11:42","slug":"5-years-post-covid-public-middle-schoolers-still-cant-read-or-do-math","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=545","title":{"rendered":"5 Years Post-Covid, Public Middle Schoolers Still Can&#8217;t Read Or Do Math"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Last\u00a0week, the\u00a0National Center for Education Statistics released\u00a0results\u00a0from 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=543\">Meet The Marriage-Minded Women Stuck Dating During The Most Fertile Decade Of Their Lives<\/a><\/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 achievement gaps persist across multiple student demographic groups.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, results for 13-year-old students\u00a0remain\u00a0appalling.\u00a0\u00a0<\/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.\u00a0<\/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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The most\u00a0notorious\u00a0example 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.\u00a0\u00a0<\/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 made meaningful progress toward finally neutralizing the so-called \u201cmiddle school slump.\u201d Regrettably, that progress was short lived. Social and emotional learning (SEL), the Common Core State\u00a0Standards, and other large-scale educational experiments began to spread rapidly during the 2010s and\u00a0likely railroaded\u00a0a decade of solid academic progress.\u00a0<\/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>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=541\">Why Aren\u2019t Any World Cup Players Taking A Knee For Henry Nowak?<\/a><\/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.\u00a0<\/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.\u00a0<\/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<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=539\">WI Leftist In Moderate\u2019s Clothing Endorsed By Teachers Union That Backs Radical Trans Agenda<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While\u00a0some students have made\u00a0promising\u00a0gains,\u00a0test results suggest that\u00a0our public schools continue to fall short for far too many children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[657],"tags":[2016,14,472,2017,2018,2019,2020,2021,915,660,2022,2023],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-childrens-literacy","tag-covid","tag-education","tag-literacy","tag-literacy-rates","tag-middle-school","tag-middle-school-slump","tag-middle-schoolers","tag-public-education","tag-public-school","tag-reading-scores","tag-test-scores"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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