The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) results for 2024 were released on Wednesday and the results are nothing short of disastrous for Maine’s public schools.
The NAEP, which measures the reading and mathematics proficiency of 4th grade and 8th grade students in American public schools, is one of the few nationwide standardized tests policy makers can use to evaluate the efficacy of public education systems.
By any standard, Maine is failing relative to its peers, though almost no state in the Union can boast a meaningful return on the higher-than-ever rates of per pupil spending.
Per the NAEP results for Maine, one-third of 4th graders and less than a quarter of 8th graders are proficient or advanced in math. In reading, just 26 percent of students in grades 4 and 8 are proficient or advanced. Relative to other states, Maine now ranks 43rd in 4th grade math, 27th in 8th grade math, 43rd in 4th grade reading, and 35th 8th grade reading.
If those results weren’t shocking enough, Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy has compared NAEP performance in every state with the state’s growth in per pupil spending. According to the University’s Edunomics Lab report, Maine students’ test schools have dropped even as per pupil spending has skyrocketed.
Since 2013, the state of Maine has increased per pupil education spending by 71 percent. At the same time, NAEP test scores in reading and mathematics have fallen by roughly 15 points for 8th grade math and 4th grade reading.
Although the researchers observed a similar trend nationally — i.e. higher spending per pupil but worse performance on NAEP testing — Maine’s gap between increased funding and diminished results was far more severe.
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