Massachusetts Takes First Place in Test Scores, While Post-COVID Learning Gaps Keep Growing
Massachusetts students landed the top spot in the 2024 National Assessment of Education Progress tests. Though the state leads in fourth and eighth-grade math and reading, student performance has dropped sharply since 2019.
“The news is not good,” said Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, to CBS News Boston. “We are not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground our students lost during the pandemic.”
Latest scores show a troubling trend. Fourth-graders reaching basic reading levels fell to 68% in 2024, down eight points from 2019. Math scores suffered even more among eighth-graders – basic proficiency dropped ten points to 68%.
Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler found hope in fourth-grade math, which has bounced back to pre-pandemic levels. “While today’s results are not quite where we want them to be, we want to be No. 1 for all students,” Tutwiler said. “This is not a quick fix, it’s going to take time.”
Big gaps show up in the newest results. In math, Black eighth-graders lag behind white students by 37 points. Students from low-income families score 39 points lower than their classmates.
Thomas Kane, who leads Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research, warns about growing gaps. “No one in Massachusetts wants to leave poor kids footing the bill for the pandemic, but that is the path we are on,” Kane said.
The gap between poor and wealthy students has grown by half a grade level since 2019. Students fell behind about eight months in math and five months in reading from 2019 to 2022.
At this rate, getting back to pre-COVID reading levels could take ten years. Math might need four years. These learning losses could cut student lifetime earnings by 8% in Massachusetts – worse than the 6% national average.
Schools with more low-income students see their scores dropping faster. This pattern keeps pushing achievement gaps wider than before COVID-19 struck.
State officials have started tutoring and reading programs to fix these problems. Gov. Maura Healey celebrated the top ranking while highlighting the need to improve all students’ success.