Reading scores among Arizona’s students dropped, according to exam results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Math scores remained steady, following national trends.
The 2024 assessment results, released every two years, showed that Arizona’s fourth-grade students fell behind in math and reading. Eighth-grade scores followed national trends. However, overall, Arizona students, like the rest of the nation, have yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.
“Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students,” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said. “Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.”
According to NAEP, both fourth- and eighth-grade students scoring in the 10th and 25th percentiles in 2024 performed worse than in the first NAEP reading assessment in 1992.
In Arizona, the fourth-grade reading score sat at 208, a sharp decline from 2022 and lower than its first national report card over 30 years ago. Among fourth graders scoring below the 25th percentile, 54% were Hispanic. Meanwhile, white students comprised 53% of those scoring at or above the 75th percentile.
Economic disparities were also evident. Among economically disadvantaged fourth graders, 76% scored below the 25th percentile, while 74% of students not classified as economically disadvantaged performed at or above the 75th percentile.
Despite the national report, Arizona’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, insists public schools, even those struggling financially, should be pushed to perform better academically.
“We went into a very poor district that was not doing well, and we sent people from my own department to coach the teachers and teach classes themselves,” Horne told AZPM News. “They raised the reading scores by 13% and raised the math scores by 23% in one year. So we've demonstrated that poverty is no excuse for bad academics. It's a matter of knowing what you're doing and doing it faithfully.”
When asked if the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, better known as universal school vouchers, exacerbated education funding issues and widened educational gaps, Horne said no.
“We’ve got families with three kids. Two kids are doing just fine in the neighborhood public school, but even a good school doesn't necessarily meet the needs of all the kids,” he said. “So the third student's needs are not being met, and the parents now can choose a school that will meet the child's needs. I can't understand how anyone could be so heartless just to say (parents) have to keep their child in a school where their needs are not being met.”
Horne emphasized the need for strong leadership and well-trained educators to close educational gaps.
“Great schools and great districts have great leaders. Without a great leader, you can't have a great school.”
The national exam results reflect where education stands five years post-pandemic. While Horne attributes the lingering low scores to the pandemic’s effects, Daniel McGrath, NCES Associate Commissioner, points to a broader decline.
“NAEP has reported declines in reading achievement consistently since 2019, and the continued declines since the pandemic suggest we’re facing complex challenges that cannot be fully explained by the impact of COVID-19,” McGrath said.
In either case, Horne acknowledges there is still progress to be made.
“We can’t be satisfied with that,” he said.
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