Math crisis began a decade ago and has only worsened, report says

"American students are experiencing a math crisis marked by a decline in scores that began over a decade ago and rapidly accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report shows. Almost 4 in 10 eighth-graders scored below basic in math on the Nation's Report Card, leading to the lowest scores since the test began in the early 2000s."

"The report, based mostly on other existing research and data, says this is a complex but solvable crisis, because math performance tends to be highly responsive to what happens within school walls - unlike other subjects such as reading. Math is ruthlessly cumulative, the report says, where gaps in early years tend to compound years later, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds."

Math performance among American students declined beginning around 2013 and plunged further after the COVID-19 pandemic, producing the lowest eighth-grade scores recorded since the early 2000s. Nearly 40 percent of eighth-graders scored below basic in math, while the gap between high- and low-performing students widened. Gains made by girls, low-income students, Black and Latino students, students with disabilities, and English learners have been largely erased. Math learning is highly cumulative and responsive to school conditions, and emotional factors like anxiety affect both teachers and students, compounding early gaps over time.

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