Gov. Kay Ivey speaks the release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) at Daniel Pratt Elementary School Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2025 in Prattville. The scores showed improvement in fourth-grade math achievement but flat scores overall. (Ralph Chapoco/Alabama Reflector)
The state’s public school students moved up in the ranks of a national achievement test despite scores remaining largely unchanged over prior years.
National Assessment Education Progress (NAEP) scores released on Wednesday showed fourth graders making significant gains in math and improving overall proficiency in reading last year. But reading scores for fourth graders were unchanged from 2022, while eighth graders’ math and reading scores remained flat.
However, largely stagnant national NAEP scores meant Alabama moved up the ranks of the states, with fourth-graders scoring close to national averages.
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“When I took office, Alabama ranked 49th in reading,” Gov. Kay Ivey said at a news conference at Daniel Pratt Elementary School in Prattville on Wednesday. “Today, we are 34th. And in math, when I took office, Alabama ranked 52nd, and today, we are 32nd.”
Alabama fourth-grade students scored an average of 236 on the NAEP in 2024, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, which compiles the data. That was six points higher than the 230 recorded by fourth-graders in 2022 and close to the national average of 237.
Fourth-grade reading scores were unchanged over 2022, with fourth graders scoring a 213 last year. In reading, fourth graders obtained an average of 213, which was unchanged from 2022. But a decline in national reading averages — from 216 to 214 — meant that Alabama’s fourth graders also came close to that average.
“Math is really good,” said Alabama State Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey at an Alabama State Board of Education retreat Wednesday morning. “Where we have been investing in early math … it was the most growth in any subject Alabama has ever had. It is the most growth in the nation. We are the only state that had any significant growth in math.”
Eighth grade scores were mostly unchanged over 2022. Eighth graders scored an average of 262 on math assessments, two points lower than in 2022 and 10 points lower than the national average. Their reading assessment average was 250, a point lower than two years ago and seven points lower than the nation’s.
Mackey said he was troubled by the results of the reading scores.
“It is still very little growth,” he said. “Most states have shown significant declines. Most of the country is worried about reading.”
The NAEP is administered every two years to gauge fourth and eighth graders’ math and reading ability.
The raw scores that students receive are then scaled to then determine which of four categories: below NAEP basic, NAEP basic, NAEP proficient and NAEP advanced, they belong.
Alabama’s fourth grade students did appear more proficient in math, according to the results. NAEP said 37% of fourth-graders who took the NAEP test in 2024 were proficient or advanced in math, compared to 27% in 2022.
For 2024, 18% of eighth graders were either proficient or advanced in mathematics, which is about the same as the number of students, 19%, who were at the same level in 2022.
About 28% of Alabama fourth grade students are proficient or advanced in terms of their ability to read, according to the most recent scores, which is the same as the number of students at that level two years ago.
His enthusiasm overall was more tempered with respect to the scores overall, however.
“We are not where we want to be,” Mackey said during the news conference. “We obviously have a lot of growth that we want to continue to have in math, reading, and all of our other subjects. But what the NAEP scores show is that we have the right strategy, and we are on the right path.”
National average mathematics NAEP scores have stagnated since 2013. Average math scores for eighth grade students have declined, as has the rest of the average score for the rest of the country.
Mackey said that the results show ongoing struggles with divisions in Alabama, particularly when it comes to race and poverty. Alabama historically starved Black schools of funds and has some of the nation’s highest poverty rates, which affect student achievement.
The achievement gap still exists in the state. In fourth grade math, about 15% of those students who are Black performed at the basic or proficient level, according to NAEP statistics. For whites, the number was 52%.
The superintendent said that if the economically disadvantaged students were removed from the results, the state would have had even higher improvement scores.
“It is still our struggling kids who are struggling, and our other students are excelling,” Mackey said. “All of our kids are part of this. That means we have to continue to focus on those students who need the extra help, extra resources.”
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