New Nation’s Report Card reveals how WA schools, test scores stack up to rest of the US

The most recent edition of the Nation’s Report Card, the report on test scores in each state published every other year by the National Center for Education Statistics, was released earlier this week. The report is based on the results of the National Assessment for Education Progress, a standardized test given to fourth and eighth grade students across the country every few years. Here’s what it had to say about Washington.

Washington tests just above national average

40% of Washington fourth grade students and 30% of eighth graders tested at or above proficient levels at math. Both numbers represent a slight uptick from the 2022 edition of the report, and are just above the nationwide rate. 75% of Washington fourth graders and 59% of eighth graders tested at or above basic levels in math.

In the reading section of the test, 32% of fourth graders tested at proficient levels compared to 31% across the country. 31% of Washington eighth graders were proficient in reading, just above the national rate of 30%.

61% of fourth graders and 69% of eighth graders tested at or above basic reading levels.

Washington test scores on par with 2022

So how did Washington’s test scores compare to the previous report? It’s a mixed bag.

Proficiency rates on the math assessment were up among both fourth and eighth grades from the 2022 report, but reading proficiency rates dropped slightly in both grades. The percentage of eighth graders doing math at a basic level fell by five percentage points, while the rate of eighth graders reading at basic levels fell by two percentage points.

Average test scores were down in every category aside from fourth grade math.

Post-pandemic recovery is slow

While Washington test scores only dipped slightly from their 2022 levels, they’re well below pre-pandemic levels. Eighth grade math proficiency rates are ten percentage points lower than they were in 2019, while reading proficiency rates are seven percentage points below 2019 levels.

For fourth graders, the effect isn’t quite as pronounced – the reading proficiency rate is down by three percentage points since 2019 while math proficiency is one percentage point higher.

However, the trend is even more stark when you consider that 2019 was already a down year. The eighth grade math proficiency rate has fallen from 41% in 2017 to 30% in 2024, while the percentage of students who tested below the “basic” threshold rose from 25% to 41% over that same time frame. The percentage of eighth graders reading below a basic level has gone from 20% in 2017 to 31% in 2024.

WA education gap

Washington eighth grade students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds tested an average of 36 points below their peers in math while the gap was 28 points among fourth graders, the sixth and 11th biggest gaps in the country in their respective categories.

The gap was slightly smaller in reading – 26 points among eighth graders and 29 points among fourth graders, both ranking among the 20 biggest gaps in the country.

That gap widened in both math categories compared to 2022, while closing slightly in both reading categories.

This story was originally published February 1, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "New Nation’s Report Card reveals how WA schools, test scores stack up to rest of the US."