New York State Test Scores Fall as Younger Students Struggle With Reading
Preliminary 2026 results show a sharp setback in English language arts, even as math and science scores improve statewide.
New York state test scores are sending a troubling message as families prepare for a new school year. Only 48% of students in grades 3 through 8 scored proficient in English language arts in 2026, down from 53% a year earlier. The decline was especially sharp among younger students, raising new questions about whether children are developing the reading skills they need early enough to succeed in later grades. At the same time, the picture is not uniformly negative. Statewide math proficiency rose to 57%, and science scores also improved.
The preliminary results, released by the New York State Education Department on Aug. 5, show that the state is facing a literacy challenge even as students make progress in other subjects.
New York Reading Scores Take a Step Back
The statewide English language arts proficiency rate for grades 3 through 8 fell five percentage points, from 53% in 2025 to 48% in 2026.
That decline becomes more concerning when the results are broken down by grade.
According to NYSED’s preliminary data:
- Grade 3: 43% proficient, down from 54% in 2025
- Grade 4: 48%, down from 54%
- Grade 5: 43%, down from 57%
- Grade 6: 50%, down slightly from 51%
- Grade 7: 51%, unchanged
- Grade 8: 53%, up from 52%
The steepest decline occurred in fifth grade, where proficiency dropped 14 percentage points. Third-grade proficiency fell 11 points.
Those numbers matter because elementary school is when students are expected to make the critical shift from learning how to read to using reading as a tool for learning history, science, mathematics and other subjects.
English language arts tests measure more than basic reading ability, so the results should not be treated as a pure literacy test. Still, NYSED itself acknowledged that the decline deserves serious attention.
A department spokesperson said the preliminary results showed a “significant decline in statewide English Language Arts performance for some grade levels compared with the prior year.”
NYSED said it plans a more detailed analysis to determine which students and communities were most affected and where additional support is needed.
The Longer Trend Is More Complicated
One year of falling scores does not tell the entire story.
In 2024, statewide ELA proficiency for grades 3 through 8 stood at 46%. It jumped to 53% in 2025 before dropping to 48% in 2026.
That means this year’s reading and language arts performance is worse than last year’s but remains slightly above the 2024 statewide level.
This distinction is important.
The results should not be dismissed, but neither should they be presented as proof that every recent literacy effort has failed.
New York is in the middle of a major change in the way early reading is taught. Those reforms will take time to reach every classroom and every child.
Math Scores Move in the Opposite Direction
While ELA scores fell, mathematics proficiency improved statewide.
The percentage of students in grades 3 through 8 who reached proficiency increased from 55% in 2025 to 57% in 2026.
Several grades posted gains:
- Grade 3 remained at 60%
- Grade 4 increased from 59% to 62%
- Grade 5 increased from 54% to 55%
- Grade 6 increased from 51% to 53%
- Grade 7 increased from 56% to 60%
- Grade 8 remained at 47%
The overall math proficiency rate has now risen from 52% in 2024 to 55% in 2025 and 57% in 2026.
That trend provides a useful reminder that student achievement after the pandemic is not moving in a single direction.
Children can make progress in one subject while losing ground in another.
Science Scores Also Improve
Science provided another encouraging sign.
Among students in grades 5 and 8, statewide science proficiency increased from 44% in 2025 to 47% in 2026.
Fifth-grade proficiency rose from 45% to 46%, while eighth-grade proficiency climbed from 44% to 49%.
Just two years ago, only 35% of students tested across those two grades were proficient.
The improvement does not erase concerns about reading, but it suggests New York schools are capable of producing measurable academic gains.
The challenge is figuring out why ELA results moved sharply in the other direction, particularly in grades three and five.
COVID Learning Loss Still Hangs Over Schools
The latest scores also arrive against a difficult national backdrop.
America’s students have not fully recovered from the educational disruption that followed the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, often called the Nation’s Report Card, just 31% of fourth-graders nationally performed at or above NAEP Proficient in reading. That was two percentage points below 2022 and four points below 2019.
New York has faced similar challenges.
In 2024, about 31% of New York eighth-graders reached NAEP Proficient in reading. The average state score was 257, compared with 262 in both 2019 and 2022.
NAEP proficiency and New York’s state proficiency standards are not interchangeable. They use different assessments and standards, so their percentages should not be directly compared.
But both sets of data point toward a broader problem: rebuilding reading performance after the pandemic remains difficult.
New York Has Already Changed Its Reading Strategy
The decline comes as New York implements its Back to Basics reading initiative, which requires districts to align early literacy instruction with evidence-based practices associated with the Science of Reading.
The approach emphasizes several foundational skills:
- Phonemic awareness
- Phonics
- Decoding words
- Vocabulary
- Reading comprehension
New York’s FY 2025 budget included $10 million to train 20,000 teachers and teaching assistants in evidence-based literacy practices. Districts were also required to review their curricula and instructional strategies for alignment with state guidance.
SUNY has since moved to align educator preparation programs with Science of Reading principles so future teachers receive training in evidence-based literacy instruction before entering classrooms. More than 5,000 graduates leave SUNY teacher preparation programs each year, according to the state.
Governor Kathy Hochul has promoted the approach as a long-term effort to strengthen reading instruction.
The theory is straightforward: children need explicit instruction in how sounds, letters and words work, combined with vocabulary, knowledge and comprehension.
But statewide policy does not transform classroom results overnight.
Teachers must be trained. Curricula may need to change. Schools need appropriate materials. Districts must determine which students need additional help and provide that support consistently.
The 2026 test results may therefore become an important test of implementation, not simply of policy.
Why Third-Grade Reading Deserves Special Attention
Third-grade reading has long been viewed as a critical academic milestone.
Students who struggle to read independently can face increasing difficulty as textbooks and assignments become more complex.
The concern is supported by research cited by New York when it launched its literacy reforms. The state noted that students who are not proficient readers by the end of third grade face a substantially greater risk of eventually dropping out of school.
That makes the drop in third-grade ELA proficiency from 54% to 43% difficult to ignore.
It does not mean 57% of New York third-graders “cannot read.” State assessments measure whether students meet specific state standards, and children who fall below proficiency may have very different levels of reading ability.
But it does mean thousands of children are not demonstrating the level of ELA performance New York expects at that stage of their education.
That should command the attention of educators, policymakers and parents.
Test Scores Are Important, but They Are Not the Whole Child
There is also a fair counterargument.
Standardized tests provide useful information, but they do not capture everything a student knows or everything a teacher accomplishes.
NYSED makes that point itself.
The department describes annual state assessments as one measure of student learning rather than the sole measure of academic success. Schools also use classroom work, teacher observations, local assessments and other information to understand student progress.
The 2026 numbers are also preliminary.
School districts still must review and verify the data, and NYSED expects final statewide assessment results to be released in early November.
Parents should therefore avoid treating one test score as a permanent label on a child.
At the same time, policymakers should not use that caution as an excuse to ignore a statewide warning sign.
What Parents Can Do Now
Families do not have to wait for another state report.
Parents and caregivers can take several practical steps:
- Ask the school for your child’s individual assessment results.
- Ask the teacher where your child is strongest and where additional support is needed.
- Read with younger children every day, including books they choose themselves.
- Ask children questions about what they read instead of focusing only on pronunciation.
- Contact the school if a child is consistently struggling with decoding, fluency or comprehension.
- Ask whether tutoring, reading intervention or other academic support is available.
- Encourage older students to read outside school, including news, biographies, fiction and subjects that interest them.
The goal should not be to turn every evening into another school day.
It should be to make reading a regular and meaningful part of family life.
The Numbers Should Lead to Action
New York’s latest scores contain both a warning and a reason for hope.
Reading and language arts performance fell sharply, especially among younger students. Math proficiency continued to rise. Science improved again.
That mixed picture tells us something important: academic recovery is possible, but it is not automatic.
New York has already invested in evidence-based reading instruction, teacher training, tutoring and changes to educator preparation. The next step is making sure those policies translate into better instruction in every classroom, from wealthy suburbs to rural communities and high-need urban districts.
NYSED says it will analyze the results rather than explain them away. That is the right starting point.
Parents should ask questions. School boards should examine their local numbers. Educators should receive the training and materials they need. State leaders should identify where the largest gaps remain and direct resources toward children who are falling behind.
A test score is not a child’s destiny.
But when statewide numbers show that fewer than half of tested students are meeting New York’s ELA proficiency standard, the responsible response is not panic or political blame.
It is action.
Sources
- New York State Education Department, preliminary 2026 Grades 3-8 ELA, Mathematics and Science assessment results, Aug. 5, 2026.
- New York State Education Department, 2025 assessment results and statewide report card data.
- National Center for Education Statistics and The Nation’s Report Card, 2024 NAEP reading results.
- New York State Back to Basics Reading Plan and Science of Reading initiatives.
