The average reading and math scores of American high school seniors fell to their lowest levels in two decades in 2024, according to new national data released last week.
The results, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found that, on average, reading scores for 12th graders were 10 points lower in 2024 than they were in 1992, when the test was first administered, and that math scores fell to their lowest levels since 2005, when the math assessment began.
The test, administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), which is part of the US Department of Education, assessed roughly 19,300 12th-graders in math, 24,300 in reading and 23,000 eighth-graders in science between January and March of last year.
I think it’s probably because a lot of students don’t see the reward in actually learning stuff anymore.
People are very much feeling this. I talk to lots of people and many (aged 24) say that they feel like they wasted a lot of their time striving for good grades and education while they could have actually enjoyed their lifes, meet friends, enter relationships and have fun. They focused on education because they felt certain that it would lead to a good, well-paying job later in life, which would make it all have been worth it.
Now this is becoming untrue, and people realize they’ve studied/learned for many years, only to be unemployed because the labor market is increasingly lowering demand.