Are American Students Falling Behind in Math? What Parents Should Know

Imagine your child comes home with a B in math.

They're completing their homework, passing their quizzes, and generally keeping up with the class.

Everything seems fine.

Then they take a standardized assessment that measures skills from previous grade levels.

Suddenly, the results suggest they're struggling with concepts they were supposed to master years ago.

How can a student earn decent grades while still having significant gaps in mathematical understanding?

And is this happening to more students across the country?

According to the latest national assessments, American students are facing a serious mathematics challenge.

Math achievement remains below levels recorded before the pandemic, and some of the most concerning declines are occurring among students who were already struggling.

But the situation is more complicated than simply saying American students are getting worse at math.

Some students are recovering. Others are falling further behind.

And understanding that difference is important for parents who want to make sure their own children are developing the mathematical skills they'll need.

What Do the Latest National Math Scores Actually Show?

Every few years, the federal government administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress, commonly known as NAEP or The Nation's Report Card.

Unlike classroom tests, NAEP measures mathematical knowledge and skills across representative samples of American students.

This allows researchers to track national performance over time.

The results from the 2024 mathematics assessment, released in January 2025, revealed a concerning picture.

Fourth grade mathematics scores improved slightly compared with 2022, but remained below their 2019 levels.

The national average increased by two points between 2022 and 2024.

That sounds encouraging, and it is.

However, fourth graders were still scoring three points below the average recorded before the pandemic.

The situation was more concerning among eighth graders.

Eighth grade mathematics scores showed no statistically significant improvement between 2022 and 2024.

The national average remained eight points below its 2019 level.

In other words, while younger students showed some recovery, the average middle school student had not experienced the same improvement.

Source: The Nation's Report Card: 2024 Mathematics Results.

The Most Concerning Finding Isn't the Average Score

National averages are useful.

But they can also hide important differences.

Imagine a classroom with 20 students.

Five are performing exceptionally well.

Ten are doing reasonably well.

Five are struggling significantly.

If the strongest students improve while the weakest students decline, the classroom average might barely change.

But that doesn't mean the situation is stable.

Something similar appeared in the 2024 national mathematics results.

Among eighth graders, students performing near the top of the achievement distribution improved compared with 2022.

Meanwhile, students performing near the bottom experienced further declines.

The gap between stronger and weaker math students was growing.

The 2024 assessment found that eighth graders at the 75th and 90th percentiles improved, while those at the 10th and 25th percentiles declined.

This is particularly troubling because mathematics is cumulative.

Students who are already behind often face increasing difficulty as new material builds on concepts they haven't mastered.

Source: 2024 NAEP Mathematics Summary.

What Does It Mean When a Student Is Below Proficient?

One of the most frequently quoted statistics from national education reports concerns the percentage of students who are considered proficient in mathematics.

But this statistic is often misunderstood.

NAEP divides student performance into achievement categories, including Basic, Proficient, and Advanced.

NAEP Proficient does not mean the same thing as performing at grade level according to a student's school or state.

It represents a more demanding benchmark reflecting solid academic performance and competency with challenging subject matter.

A student who does not reach NAEP Proficient is not necessarily incapable of completing grade level mathematics.

This distinction matters because headlines sometimes describe everyone below NAEP Proficient as being unable to do grade level math.

That is not an accurate interpretation of the assessment.

Nevertheless, the results provide important information about the mathematical skills American students are developing.

And they suggest that a substantial number of students are struggling to demonstrate strong mathematical understanding.

What About High School Students?

The concerns do not disappear when students reach high school.

Results from the 2024 NAEP assessment of twelfth graders showed that average mathematics performance declined by three points compared with 2019.

The decline was particularly concerning among lower performing students.

These results suggest that academic gaps are not necessarily resolving themselves as students progress through school.

Some students are reaching the end of high school with significant mathematical weaknesses.

Source: 2024 NAEP Twelfth Grade Mathematics Results.

That has implications beyond mathematics classes.

Students entering college may need to complete introductory statistics, college algebra, calculus, or quantitative reasoning courses.

Others may pursue careers involving finance, engineering, healthcare, computer science, or skilled trades.

Even students who do not plan to pursue mathematically intensive careers benefit from understanding percentages, interest rates, probability, measurement, and data.

Mathematical weakness can limit opportunities long before students realize those opportunities exist.

How Does the United States Compare With Other Countries?

Another way to understand American mathematics performance is to look internationally.

The Programme for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, evaluates the skills of 15 year old students across participating countries and economies.

The most recent published PISA mathematics results are from 2022.

American students earned an average mathematics score of 465.

The average across OECD countries was 472.

That placed the United States close to the OECD average, although slightly below it numerically.

American students performed comparatively better in reading and science.

But there is another statistic worth examining.

Only 66 percent of American students demonstrated at least Level 2 proficiency in mathematics.

That means approximately 34 percent did not reach this baseline level.

Level 2 represents the ability to apply mathematics in relatively straightforward situations, including interpreting simple mathematical relationships without being explicitly told exactly what procedure to use.

By comparison, more than 85 percent of students reached this level in several high performing education systems, including Singapore, Japan, and Estonia.

Source: OECD: PISA 2022 United States Results.

These results do not mean American students are universally poor at mathematics.

The United States has many exceptional students, teachers, and educational institutions.

But they do suggest that a substantial portion of American teenagers lack mathematical skills that are important for everyday problem solving.

Why Are American Students Struggling?

It would be convenient if there were one explanation.

Maybe schools are assigning too little homework.

Maybe students are spending too much time on their phones.

Maybe teachers are moving too quickly.

Maybe the pandemic caused the problem.

But national assessment scores cannot establish a single cause.

The reality likely involves several overlapping factors.

And some of those factors are especially important for parents to understand.

1. The Pandemic Created Significant Learning Disruptions

When schools closed in 2020, millions of students experienced major changes in how they learned.

Some transitioned successfully to remote instruction.

Others struggled with inconsistent attendance, limited access to technology, reduced instructional time, or difficulty learning independently.

The effects were not uniform.

But national mathematics scores fell sharply between 2019 and 2022.

In 2022, fourth grade scores declined by five points compared with 2019.

Eighth grade scores declined by eight points.

These were the largest mathematics score declines recorded between NAEP assessments since the assessments began in 1990.

Source: NAEP: 2022 Mathematics Highlights.

The pandemic was not the beginning of every problem in American mathematics education.

Some concerning trends existed beforehand.

But the disruption appears to have intensified existing challenges.

Consider a student who was learning fractions when schools closed.

Perhaps they never developed a strong understanding of fraction operations.

A year later, they encountered ratios and proportions.

Then equations.

Then algebra.

The original gap didn't disappear.

It followed them.

2. Math Is Unusually Cumulative

This is one of the most important concepts for parents to understand.

Mathematics builds on previous knowledge.

A student learning algebra relies on arithmetic skills.

A student learning geometry may need algebra.

A student learning trigonometry relies on algebra and geometric reasoning.

A student learning calculus depends heavily on algebra, functions, and trigonometry.

Weaknesses in earlier topics can create problems years later.

Imagine a student in Algebra II who struggles to simplify:

3(x + 4) = 24

They may understand the general idea of solving equations.

But if they struggle with distribution, negative numbers, or division, the problem becomes much more difficult.

Now imagine that same student trying to solve a complicated rational equation.

The student may conclude:

"I don't understand Algebra II."

But the actual problem might be several foundational skills that were never fully developed.

Sometimes students aren't struggling because the current material is too advanced. They're struggling because the current material depends on something they never mastered.

This is why simply repeating the latest lesson isn't always enough.

Students sometimes need to revisit concepts from previous years.

3. Students Can Advance Without Fully Mastering the Material

A student finishes seventh grade with a C in math.

They move to eighth grade.

They finish with another C.

They enter Algebra I.

At each stage, the student progresses to more advanced material.

But what happened to the concepts they didn't understand?

In many cases, those weaknesses remain.

A passing grade doesn't necessarily mean every important skill has been mastered.

Students can earn points through homework completion, participation, projects, corrections, and other grading components.

Those activities can be valuable.

But they may also make it difficult for parents to determine how independently a student can solve mathematical problems.

Consider two students who both earn an 85 percent in Algebra I.

The first understands the concepts but occasionally makes careless mistakes.

The second completes assignments with extensive assistance and struggles to solve problems independently.

Their grades are identical.

Their mathematical readiness may be very different.

A grade tells you something about performance in a class. It doesn't necessarily tell you which mathematical skills a student has mastered.

4. Students May Be Memorizing Procedures Without Understanding Them

Imagine a student learning to solve equations.

Their teacher demonstrates a method.

The student copies the steps.

They practice ten nearly identical problems.

They get nine correct.

Everything seems fine.

But then the test presents the same concept in an unfamiliar format.

The student freezes.

Why?

Because they learned a procedure without fully understanding the mathematical reasoning behind it.

There is nothing inherently wrong with memorizing useful procedures.

Fluency matters in mathematics.

But students also need to understand when and why those procedures work.

For example, a student might memorize the formula for the area of a triangle:

Area = ½ × base × height

But can they explain why the formula includes one half?

Can they recognize which measurement represents the height when the triangle is rotated?

Can they solve a problem where the area and base are given but the height is unknown?

These questions reveal whether the student can apply the concept rather than simply reproduce a memorized formula.

Strong mathematical understanding involves both procedural fluency and conceptual reasoning.

Students need both.

5. Math Anxiety Can Make an Existing Problem Worse

For some students, math becomes emotionally difficult.

They approach assignments expecting to fail.

They become nervous during tests.

They panic when a problem looks unfamiliar.

They avoid asking questions because they don't want classmates to think they're behind.

Over time, the student may begin saying:

"I'm just not a math person."

Math anxiety is a well documented phenomenon, and research has found a consistent negative association between math anxiety and mathematical performance.

However, the relationship can work in both directions.

Struggling with mathematics may increase anxiety.

Anxiety may also interfere with the attention and working memory needed to solve problems.

This can create a cycle:

A student struggles.

They lose confidence.

They become anxious.

They avoid challenging problems.

Their skills improve more slowly.

They struggle again.

Breaking this cycle requires more than telling students to be confident.

Students need opportunities to develop genuine competence.

Confidence often follows successful learning.

6. Students May Be Practicing Math Ineffectively

Not all studying produces the same results.

Consider a student preparing for a math test.

They spend an hour rereading their notes.

They watch their teacher's example problems.

They look over their homework.

Everything looks familiar.

They feel prepared.

Then they take the test and struggle.

The problem may be that they spent most of their study time recognizing solutions rather than producing them.

Watching someone solve a problem is not the same as being able to solve it independently.

Effective math preparation should include opportunities to retrieve information, choose strategies, solve unfamiliar problems, and correct mistakes.

Students need to practice doing the thinking themselves.

For example, instead of reviewing ten completed quadratic equations, a student should attempt several without looking at the solutions.

Afterward, they should examine their mistakes.

Did they choose the wrong method?

Make an arithmetic error?

Misunderstand the question?

Forget how to factor?

Each mistake provides information about what to practice next.

Simply spending more time studying is not necessarily the answer.

Students need to spend more time studying in ways that reveal and strengthen their understanding.

Are Calculators and Technology Part of the Problem?

This question comes up frequently.

Some parents remember learning mathematics with fewer technological tools.

They wonder whether calculators have made students too dependent on technology.

It's a reasonable concern.

But the answer is not as simple as banning calculators.

Calculators can be valuable educational tools.

They allow students to explore patterns, investigate functions, work with larger datasets, and focus on mathematical reasoning rather than spending all their time performing arithmetic.

The problem arises when technology replaces skills students still need to understand.

Consider a student using a calculator to determine that 15 percent of 80 is 12.

That's fine.

But does the student understand what 15 percent means?

Can they estimate whether 12 is a reasonable answer?

Could they calculate 10 percent of 80 mentally?

Do they recognize that 15 percent is the same as 0.15?

A calculator can produce the answer.

It cannot guarantee the student understands the mathematics.

The same principle applies to increasingly sophisticated educational technology and artificial intelligence.

Technology is most valuable when it supports mathematical thinking rather than replacing it.

What Should Parents Be Looking For?

National test scores are interesting.

But parents ultimately want to know something much more personal.

Is my student developing the mathematical foundation they need?

The answer requires looking beyond a single grade.

Here are several questions worth asking.

Can Your Student Explain Their Reasoning?

Suppose your student solves an equation correctly.

Ask:

"Can you explain why you did that?"

A student who understands the concept should usually be able to explain the general reasoning behind their steps.

Their explanation doesn't need to be sophisticated.

It just needs to demonstrate understanding.

If they can only say:

"That's what my teacher told us to do,"

they may need more conceptual reinforcement.

Can They Solve Problems Without Looking at Examples?

Many students appear successful while completing homework because they have access to notes, videos, calculators, and worked examples.

But assessments often require them to work independently.

Try giving your student a problem similar to one they completed previously.

Remove the example.

Ask them to solve it from scratch.

If they cannot begin without looking at the steps, they may not have developed independent proficiency yet.

Can They Handle a Slightly Different Problem?

Imagine a student has practiced solving:

2x + 5 = 17

They can solve it correctly.

Now ask:

17 = 5 + 2x

Or:

3(x + 2) = 21

These problems involve related mathematical ideas, but their appearance is different.

A student who understands the underlying concept should gradually become comfortable applying it in different formats.

If every unfamiliar presentation causes confusion, more flexible understanding may be needed.

Are the Same Mistakes Appearing Repeatedly?

An occasional arithmetic error is normal.

But recurring mistakes can reveal foundational weaknesses.

For example:

A student repeatedly mishandles negative signs.

They consistently struggle with fractions.

They forget how to distribute.

They cannot rearrange equations.

They confuse slope with the value of a function.

These are not necessarily signs that the student is incapable of learning advanced mathematics.

They may be signs that specific prerequisite skills need attention.

And the sooner those weaknesses are addressed, the less likely they are to interfere with future coursework.

What Can Parents Do to Help?

The national statistics may sound discouraging.

But individual students are not powerless.

There are practical steps families can take to strengthen mathematical understanding.

1. Identify the Earliest Significant Gap

If your student is struggling in Algebra II, don't automatically assume Algebra II is the entire problem.

Look backward.

Are they comfortable with fractions?

Negative numbers?

Solving equations?

Exponents?

Factoring?

Graphing linear functions?

The goal is not to make a high school student repeat years of elementary school mathematics.

It is to identify the specific skills interfering with current learning.

Sometimes repairing one foundational weakness can make several newer concepts much easier.

2. Practice Consistently Instead of Cramming

Mathematical fluency develops through repeated opportunities to apply skills.

A student who practices for 20 minutes several times throughout the week may benefit more than one who attempts to learn everything during a single lengthy session.

The important part is that practice is meaningful.

Students should solve problems independently, receive feedback, and revisit skills they previously struggled with.

They should also occasionally practice older material.

Just because a student learned factoring three months ago doesn't mean they will automatically remember it when they need it again.

3. Make Mistakes Part of the Learning Process

When your student gets a problem wrong, resist the temptation to immediately provide the correct solution.

Instead, ask:

"Where do you think things started going wrong?"

Sometimes they will recognize the mistake immediately.

Other times they may need help locating it.

The important thing is that they participate in the correction process.

A wrong answer is useful information.

It can reveal a misunderstanding, a missing skill, or a careless error.

Students who learn to analyze mistakes become better equipped to work independently.

4. Encourage Students to Explain Concepts Out Loud

One of the simplest ways to test understanding is to ask students to teach something.

Suppose your student just learned how to factor a quadratic expression.

Ask them to explain the process to you.

What are they looking for?

Why does the method work?

How can they check the answer?

What happens if the expression doesn't factor easily?

Students often discover gaps in their own understanding when they try to explain a concept clearly.

And parents don't need to be mathematics experts to ask thoughtful questions.

Sometimes:

"Why does that work?"

is enough to start a valuable conversation.

5. Address Problems Before They Become Major Academic Setbacks

One of the most common mistakes families make is waiting until a student is failing before seeking additional support.

But mathematical weaknesses often develop gradually.

A student earns an 82 on one quiz.

Then a 76.

Then a 71.

Their homework becomes more difficult.

They begin avoiding assignments.

Eventually, the family realizes there's a serious problem.

By that point, the student may have accumulated several overlapping gaps.

Earlier intervention can make the situation easier to address.

That might mean meeting with the teacher, attending office hours, using targeted practice materials, or working with a qualified tutor.

The important thing is to focus on the underlying skills rather than simply trying to raise the next test score.

Should Parents Be Worried About Their Student's Future?

National mathematics trends are concerning.

But they should not lead parents to assume that their own child is destined to struggle.

A national average cannot tell you everything about an individual student.

Some American students are performing exceptionally well.

Others are making substantial progress after earlier setbacks.

And many students who struggle with mathematics can improve significantly when they receive appropriate instruction and practice.

The more useful question is not:

"Is American education falling apart?"

It's:

"Does my student understand the mathematics they're being asked to learn, and what can we do if they don't?"

That question leads to action.

And action is far more useful than anxiety about national rankings.

A Simple Math Check Parents Can Try This Week

You don't need to administer a formal assessment.

Start with a conversation.

Ask your student:

"What are you learning in math right now?"

Then:

"Can you show me how to solve one of those problems?"

After they solve it, ask:

"Why does that method work?"

Finally:

"What's something from an earlier math class that you still find difficult?"

Pay attention to the answers.

Does your student explain their thinking confidently?

Do they rely entirely on memorized steps?

Can they identify specific areas of confusion?

Do they become frustrated immediately?

Do they seem unable to work without examples?

This conversation won't provide a complete picture of mathematical ability.

But it can reveal whether a deeper discussion with their teacher would be useful.

And it communicates something important.

Understanding matters more than simply getting the assignment finished.

The Bottom Line

Are American students falling behind in math?

The national evidence shows that mathematics achievement remains below levels recorded before the pandemic, with particularly concerning trends among lower performing students.

The 2024 Nation's Report Card showed modest improvement among fourth graders but no significant recovery in average eighth grade mathematics performance.

The 2024 twelfth grade results also showed declines compared with 2019.

International assessments raise additional concerns about the proportion of American teenagers demonstrating foundational mathematical proficiency.

But these results do not mean every student is struggling.

Nor do they establish that one particular teaching method, technology, or educational policy is responsible.

What they do reinforce is the importance of developing strong mathematical foundations.

Math is cumulative.

When students miss important concepts, those weaknesses can follow them into more advanced courses.

And when students continue progressing without addressing those gaps, mathematics can become increasingly frustrating.

For parents, the most important takeaway is straightforward.

Don't assume that passing a math class automatically means your student has mastered the skills they'll need next year.

Ask questions.

Look for genuine understanding.

Pay attention to recurring mistakes.

Encourage independent problem solving.

And address foundational gaps before they become larger obstacles.

Because the goal isn't simply to help students pass their next mathematics test.

It's to help them develop the knowledge, confidence, and problem solving abilities they'll continue using long after that test is over.