America just failed another test. After a decades-long decline in reading and math scores, a recent report says students in the U.S. aren’t improving… In fact, they’re getting worse. But what’s more shocking is the clear educational gap between Black students and their peers and the overall lack of resources available to help.
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The average high school senior cannot read proficiently, according to recent data complied as the nation’s report card, which means when it comes to going to college, many students are ill-equipped. In a world where President Donald Trump wants to get rid of the Department of Education and where political leaders in states like Florida want to control exactly what gets taught in public schools, we should all be worried.
The nation’s report card reported the reading level for high school seniors is the lowest they’ve been in 30 years. As far as math goes, only 33 percent of high school seniors were prepared for college-level math courses, which is a four percent decline from 2019. The report doesn’t break down exactly which students scored the lowest, but separate studies illuminate the frightening truth for Black students.
“Scores for our lowest-performing students are at historic lows,” Matthew Soldner, the acting commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, told CNN. “These results should galvanize all of us to take concerted and focused action to accelerate student learning.”
A 2024 report from EdTrust- New York found 42 percent of Black 8th graders scored Below Basic in reading and 56 percent scored Below Basic in math. compared to their white peers, Black students in New York are severely underprepared, and they have been for years. This isn’t a case-by-case issue, however. Across the country, Black students are suffering in silence.
According to a 2019 report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 84 percent of Black students lack proficiency in math and 85 percent lack proficiency in reading, and that was before COVID-19. Now, experts know that the pandemic had a significant negative impact on students, and they’re still trying to recover.
“We cannot be complacent when the data repeatedly tells us that the race, sex, or disability of students continue to dramatically impact everything from access to advanced placement courses to the availability of school counselors to the use of exclusionary and traumatic disciplinary practices,” former U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said.
With all this in mind, several efforts have been made to address the needs of our Black students. Organizations like the Hechinger Report reported teaching reading in all subjects– not just English– could help. But in addition to fixing the problem, you have to know the cause.
Data consistently shows Black students– especially Black boys– are disciplined by school officials at a higher rate than white students. This process begins as early as preschool and has longing impact. Black students are also underrepresented in access to laptops, Advanced Placement courses and even counseling, Word in Black reported. This is what’s keeping Black students far behind, and they need educators who will advocate to close this gap.
“Real leadership requires deep introspection as to the reasons we have fallen so far behind as a nation educationally,” Armstrong Williams, writer for The Guardian, said in 2021. “If we continue on the same path of illiteracy and failing math grades, our country will not survive.”
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