January 29, 2025, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), released data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as the “Nation’s Report Card.” Nationwide reading scores continued the decline started in 2019 and gaps between students with and without disabilities increased.

NCES Commissioner Peggy G. Carr said, “Overall, student achievement has not returned to pre-pandemic performance . . . Where there are signs of recovery, they are mostly in math and largely driven by higher-performing students. Lower-performing students are struggling, especially in reading.” Governor Glenn Youngkin and Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons confirmed this to be the case for Virginia, too.

During a press conference Wednesday, Youngkin and Coons stated certain groups were improving. However, students with disabilities and eighth grade students across the board continue to exhibit declines and struggles.

Gap is Widening Among Older Students

Youngkin admitted that one of Virginia’s “big challenges . . . is reading is really not picking up the way we want . . . and we’re also seeing eighth graders are really seeing challenges in both reading and math.” Coons shared more specific data supporting Youngkin’s comments: “We are seeing that overall we were four points lower in eighth grade reading and our students with disabilities decreased ten points. That means that gap is widening in our upper grades and we definitely need to focus and provide continued intensive support for our students with disabilities as they move into high school. Eighth grade math tells a similar story to eighth grade reading. Our economically disadvantaged students scored four points lower in 24 and 2022, as well as our English learners saw a gap of five points. So we know that our high school students today need continued supports.”

Youngkin said the Virginia literacy Act would be extended “from beyond third grade all the way up through the rest of elementary school into middle schools.” However neither he nor Coons provided a plan to address older students, to include the eighth graders whose low scoring made up the 2024 NAEP data.

Those students, now freshman in high school, were in fourth grade when COVID hit. NAEP scores support that the students continue to struggle in high school with foundational building blocks they should have mastered in elementary school.

Parents throughout Virginia have been asking about older students for years. Although Virginia and local districts have shared plans to focus on younger students, high school students continue to go unaddressed. This includes students who weren’t identified with special education needs until middle school or high school, due to COVID-related delays, and are even more behind than their peers.

Reading and Math

Reading

Reading scores for fourth and eighth graders continued the consistent decline that started in 2015 for fourth grade and 2017 for eighth grade. Both student who have disabilities and those who don't saw scores decrease. In addition, the gap between students who have disabilities and those who don't increased.