Time

American students saw some of the biggest declines in academic achievement recorded in the last 50 years, according to a nationwide assessment that paints a stark picture of the pandemic’s effect on education.

The results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is run by the U.S. Education Department, show that average scores for 9-year-old students fell five points in reading and seven points in math this year, compared to 2020. That marks the first-ever score decline in math and the largest decline in reading since 1990...