Science scores among American fourth-graders declined slightly between 2015 and 2019 — a dip largely driven by declines for lower- and middle-performing students, while the scores for higher-performing students held steady, according to results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as The Nation’s Report Card, released May 25 by the National Center for Education Statistics.

Similar patterns of divergence between lower- and higher-performing children have been reported recently across NAEP reading and mathematics assessments, as scores for lower-performing students have generally declined while scores for higher performing students have held steady or even improved.

“Once again, the lowest-performing students are falling further behind,” said Peggy G. Carr, associate commissioner of assessments at the National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the NAEP, in a statement. “This is a repeated pattern across multiple subjects and grade levels. We need a renewed focus on the educational needs of our struggling students.

The science assessment is administered to a nationally representative sample of fourth, eighth and 12th grade students and measures their knowledge in three scientific domains — Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Sciences.

The pre-pandemic scores show only 22 percent of 12th-grade students nationwide scored proficient or above, and scores have changed little in the last decade. About 41 percent of 12th-grade students did not meet the basic level in science. Among eighth graders, approximately 35 percent scored proficient or above — similar to 2015 — and just 36 percent met proficiency.

Though scores have declined overall, there appears to be a silver lining in the otherwise dismal outcomes: achievement gaps measured by outcomes among different genders and racial and ethnic student groups have narrowed.

Notably, eighth-grade girls closed the gender gap in 2019 after fourth-grade girls had previously done the same on the 2015 assessment. This marks the first time there was no gender gap between both fourth- and eighth-grade girls and boys in science. And while 12th-grade boys continued to score higher than 12th-grade girls overall, there was no gender gap among students who were taking advanced science courses.

“Over the past decade, the gender gap in eighth grade closed while the performance of both girls and boys improved, which is the best way to close an achievement gap,” Carr said. “While boys outperform girls at 12th grade, this score difference disappears among boys and girls who have completed Advanced Placement classes. This shows that girls who take challenging science courses perform as well as boys.”

Overall, the scores of fourth-graders and eighth-graders increased from 2009 to 2019, and achievement gaps for several racial/ethnic groups narrowed over that same period.

Specifically:

• Gaps narrowed between white students and Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native fourth grade students, and students of two or more races. Scores for Asian/Pacific Islander students also rose, and these students now score the same as their white counterparts, on average.
• Scores also improved for eighth grade students of all racial/ethnic groups between 2009 and 2019. Gaps narrowed between white and Black students, white and Hispanic students and white students and youth of two or more races. Asian/Pacific Islander students now score the same as their white counterparts on average in eighth grade as well.
• At grade 12, there were no statistically significant changes in scores for these student groups and no narrowing of achievement gaps between 2009 and 2019.