Scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were released on Jan. 29. Across the country, many hoped to see signs that students were recovering from pandemic learning loss — and many were disappointed.
The NAEP, also known as the Nation’s Report Card, is taken every two years by nationally representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade students in the subjects of reading and math. The release of new scores tends to dominate the airwaves since the test allows for a measure of comparison between states and is considered to be the gold standard in terms of its methodology.
A high-level examination of the data shows that although North Carolina scores improved slightly in some respects from 2022, troubling trendlines remain.
Students in both fourth grade and eighth grade in North Carolina scored above the national average in math. The average scale score for North Carolina fourth graders on the math assessment was 239, while students across the country scored a 237 on average. Although it is slightly above the national benchmark, North Carolina’s score is classified as “not significantly different” from that of the national public.
Fourth-Grade Math Average Scale Scores on NAEP

Source: The Nation’s Report Card, “State Performance Compared to the Nation: Grade 4 Mathematics, 2024”
Eighth-grade students in North Carolina also scored above the national average in math, with an average scale score of 276 compared with 272 nationally. North Carolina’s score is considered to be “significantly higher” than the national public.
Eighth-Grade Math Average Scale Scores on NAEP

Source: The Nation’s Report Card, “State Performance Compared to the Nation: Grade 8 Mathematics, 2024”
It’s important to note, however, that although North Carolina scored above the national average in math for both fourth and eighth grades, it scored below the national average for both of those grades in reading.
On the reading assessment, the average scale score for fourth graders in North Carolina was 213, compared with 214 nationally.
Fourth-Grade Reading Average Scale Scores on NAEP

Source: The Nation’s Report Card, “State Performance Compared to the Nation: Grade 4 Reading, 2024”
On the eighth-grade assessment for reading, the average scale score in North Carolina was 255, while students nationally scored a 257.
Eighth-Grade Reading Average Scale Scores on NAEP

Source: The Nation’s Report Card, “State Performance Compared to the Nation: Grade 8 Reading, 2024”
Although neither the fourth-grade nor the eighth-grade reading score is considered “significantly different” from the national average, both raise some questions. In North Carolina, students’ subpar performance in reading on the NAEP follows similarly disappointing results on the most recent end-of-grade exams, which showed that less than half of third graders (48.6 percent) achieved grade-level proficiency in reading.
Another important point of context is that as a general rule, North Carolina’s performance on the NAEP has been declining since about 2013 in both reading and math.




The problem of poor academic performance is a complex one. It has been complicated by pandemic school closures and inferior content standards such as those of the Common Core. Receiving $6 billion in Covid-relief funding (part of which was required to go towards redressing learning loss) doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. However, efforts to implement the science of reading appear to be helping.
There is neither a single cause nor a single solution. Nevertheless, the problem is a concerning one that deserves significant attention and thoughtful answers.