A new nationwide education report has found that most U.S. states continue to experience below-average student performance in math and reading, with researchers warning the country remains stuck in what they describe as a “learning recession.”
As reported by U.S. News and World Report, the report, called the Education Scorecard, was released through a collaboration involving the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University and researchers from Dartmouth College.
Researchers analyzed reading and math scores for students in grades three through eight across more than 5,000 school districts in 38 states and Washington, D.C. The data represents roughly 68% of U.S. school districts and tracks academic performance through 2025.
According to the findings, nearly all states included in the report continue to post below-average test scores despite some recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers said the decline in student achievement actually began years earlier, around 2013, which they linked partly to increased social media use among children and changes in education accountability policies following the weakening of the No Child Left Behind Act framework.
The report found that math scores rebounded more quickly after the pandemic, while reading scores continued falling until signs of improvement emerged in 2025. Researchers also identified a “U-shaped” recovery pattern, with the lowest-income and highest-income school districts showing stronger improvement than middle-income districts.
Several states that implemented “science of reading” literacy programs saw notable gains in reading scores between 2022 and 2025. The approach emphasizes phonics, decoding and structured literacy instruction.
Massachusetts recorded the highest average test scores nationally, while the District of Columbia, Louisiana, Maryland, Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky showed some of the strongest improvement trends since 2019.
Meanwhile, Nebraska, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota experienced some of the largest declines.
Researchers noted that one in three school districts still reports students reading at least one full grade level below where students performed in 2015, highlighting the continuing challenges facing U.S. education systems more than a decade into the reported decline.
