Minnesota students' scores on national math and reading exams administered to fourth- and eighth-graders last spring showed a steep slide in student performance and some of the worst results in decades.
The results released Monday from the National Assessment of Educational Performance (NAEP) showed drops in student proficiency across the country. No state saw gains.
That slide "continues trends that we have seen beginning in 2017, prior to COVID," said Kevin Burns, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Education.
"We expected declines, given the disruption everyone experienced during the pandemic, but that doesn't make these results easier to see," he wrote in an email. "While Minnesota student scores outpace national scores, we must work diligently to take the necessary steps to help all students, across all grades, achieve."
The results come just two weeks before the midterm elections, which have prompted fierce debate about education as candidates jockey for control over state and school district budgets.
The average score for a Minnesota eighth-grader on the assessment this year was 280 out of 300 possible points. That's an 11-point drop in average math scores since the assessment was last administered in 2019, compared with the eight-point slide nationally.
In 1992, Minnesota eighth-graders averaged a score of 282.
The average fourth-grade math score in Minnesota was 239 in 2022, a drop of nine points compared with five points nationally, and the lowest score in more than 20 years.