NAEP Long-Term Trend (Ages 9, 13, 17)
Math scores for 13-year-olds have stayed roughly flat since the 1990s, hovering around 265. Reading scores for the same age group peaked in the 1990s and have dipped slightly since. This dataset tracks how American students perform on reading and math tests going back 40-50 years, broken out by age group (9, 13, and 17) and by who they are (boys vs. girls, different racial and ethnic groups, kids whose parents went to college vs. those who didn't). You can also see how habits like reading for fun or watching TV relate to test scores. It's the kind of data education reporters use to write 'are our kids learning less?' stories, or that policy folks use to argue about whether schools are working.
- Source rows:
- 1,918
- Coverage:
- 1973-01-01T00:00:00Z – 2023-12-31T00:00:00Z
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Questions this data answers
- How have math and reading scores changed for American students over the past 50 years?
- Are there persistent gaps in test scores between different racial and ethnic groups?
- Does parental education level predict a child's math or reading score?
- How do reading habits and TV watching relate to student performance?
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