Report card time is always an anxious period for students. On Wednesday, the so-called “nation’s report card” was delivered courtesy of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the results would make America’s high schoolers want to hide in their room. How bad was the report on the math and reading skills of America’s 12th graders? “Seventy-four percent of students scored below the grade-appropriate level in math, compared with 26 percent of students who scored at or above grade level,” NPR reports. “In reading, just 38 percent of seniors scored at or above grade level.”
“In reading, the 38 percent share of students performing at or above the proficient level was lower than when the assessment was first given in 1992, when it was 40 percent,” according to the Associated Press. The report, which tested 92,000 public and private school students, gives America’s schools a failing grade, as its seniors are about to make the jump to college or into the workforce. The latest scores are almost identitical to the last time the exam was given in 2009, but come on the heels of new data showing U.S. high school graduation rates reached an all-time high of 80 percent in 2013.
