New numbers show Michigan’s students’ math and reading scores continue to decline, and while leaders may want to blame the pandemic, woke politics likely played a major role in the downfall.

The latest National Assessment of Education Progress results of public school students nationwide, provided by the National Center for Education Statistics, paint a dim view of the Wolverine State’s and the nation’s education progress in recent years and “show marginal progress” in the best light.

“Today’s NAEP scores continue the concerning trend of declining performance nationwide,” U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Michigan, chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said in a statement. “This is clearly a reflection of the education bureaucracy continuing to focus on woke policies rather than helping students learn and grow.

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“I’m thankful we have an administration that is looking to reverse course, and I look forward to helping reform our education system to better serve our youth,” he added, referencing President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Walberg announced a Feb. 5 hearing, “The State of American Education.”

The report develops ratings based on a scale of zero to 500.

In 2024, fourth-grade Michigan students’ mathematics average score was 235, behind the national average of 237. The state’s latest score was slightly better than the 2022 average of 232 and higher than the 2000 average score of 229.

The reading average for fourth-grade Michigan students was 209, lower than the nationwide average of 214. The 2024 score was also lower than the state’s 2022 average of 212 and the 1998 average of 216.

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Michigan eighth-grade students’ mathematics average continues to decline, reaching 270 in 2024, below the nationwide average of 272. This is down from the state’s 2022 average of 273 and lower than the 2000 average score of 277.

The reading average of 255 for eighth-grade Michigan students was below the nationwide average of 257. It was also below the state’s 2022 average of 259 and lower than its 2002 average score of 265.

“We have work to do,” Chalkbeat Detroit quoted Michael Rice, Michigan’s state superintendent, as saying in an email. In an interview with the Detroit Free Press, the superintendent blamed the declining numbers on the pandemic — not Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown orders — and cell phones.

“Children, as a rule, have challenges shutting that out and shutting it off,” the Detroit Free Press quoted Rice as saying. “And so what we know is: Children are reading less and what we know is that part of reading achievement is putting in the reps, putting in the time. You’ve got to read.”

Michigan officials might point out that the state’s numbers are comparable to the national averages. However, the national numbers also paint a dismal picture.

Nationally, this year’s scores showed a two-point drop in fourth- and eighth-grade reading scores. While fourth-grade math scores increased by two points, there were no gains at the eighth-grade math level.

The last tests were given in 2022, and all math and reading scores are “down significantly” from 2019, the last tests before the pandemic.

“We’re not seeing the progress we need to regain the ground students lost during the pandemic,” Peggy Carr, NCES commissioner, told reporters during a briefing phone call, Chalkbeat Detroit reported. “Where we are seeing signs of recovery, they’re mostly in math and largely driven by higher performing students.”

While it might be easy to dismiss the results as a natural outcome of the post-COVID-19 learning environment with little long-term impact, these test results have major implications for students later in life.

“There are going to be a lot more kids than we would hope are going to struggle with later life schooling and labor market outcomes,” Bridge MI quoted Dan Goldhaber, a researcher who studies student achievement and member of the NCES standing committee, as saying. “Because there is a pretty strong connection between how well kids do on tests and their later life outcomes.”