More than 450,000 students in elementary, middle, and high school took the math, English, and science exams last spring. There were, as usual, large achievement gaps by race and other demographics, but all groups remained below pre-pandemic levels, Martinez said.
Yet some states, like Louisiana and Alabama, have recovered fully in some subjects, while many others at least have some demographics back to pre-pandemic levels, Martinez said.
Still, he called the results “sobering, but not insurmountable,” and noted that dozens of Massachusetts districts are at pre-pandemic levels in grades 3 to 8 in at least one of math or English. Thirteen, including Amherst and Arlington, matched pre-pandemic levels in both subjects.
Overall, about 42 percent of Massachusetts students met expectations on the tests last spring; before the pandemic, half did. About 18 percent in 2025 failed the tests, compared with about 11 percent pre-pandemic.
“The road back from the pandemic is not a short one,” said Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler at the media briefing.
The new test scores are the first data released reflecting Massachusetts students’ performance in the 2024-25 school year. They continue a dismal trend shown in earlier data, including prior years’ MCAS results and the 2024 Nation’s Report Card tests, which showed students in Massachusetts and nationwide continuing to lose ground in 4th and 8th grade reading and 8th grade math. Tutwiler noted at the briefing the state still leads the nation on the national test, but an analysis from researchers at Harvard and Stanford found that in 2024 Massachusetts students were nearly half a year behind their 2019 same-grade peers.
For the five-year anniversary of school shutdowns last spring, dozens of superintendents told the Globe they expected it to take years for their students to catch up.
“There are groups of students who experienced a significant disruption to education during their formative years,“ wrote Southbridge Superintendent Jeffrey Villar at the time. ”We do not know what the full impact of that experience will have.”
Superintendents also reported significant behavioral and social challenges with their students — many said they were an even bigger challenge than academics.
Last spring’s exams also included a new eighth-grade civics test. About 39 percent of students passed the new assessment, which tested students on topics such as the philosophical basis of the U.S. political system and the structure of Massachusetts state government. The new MCAS test came 7 years after the state’s education department established a requirement all 8th graders to take a year-long civics class.
Last spring’s 10th-graders were the first in two decades to take the MCAS without high stakes. Massachusetts voters had opted last fall to abolish the exam’s use as a high school graduation requirement. The results suggest students took the test less seriously without the graduation incentive, state data chief Rob Curtin said.
“It’s not possible to fully attribute the results to one factor or the other,” Curtin said. “But we do have some evidence, whether it be in terms of the amount of students that left answers blank as compared to previous years, or the amount of students who answered a topic answered question in an off topic manner.”
Last year, about 9,000 10th-graders failed each portion of the exam and would have had to retake it if not for the state ballot measure. This year, more than 10,000 scored below the former graduation cutoff on each test.
Early reading scores showed special signs that Governor Maura Healey’s investments in evidence-based reading instruction had taken hold as of yet. Third grade students made no progress from 2024, with 42 percent meeting expectations on the reading test, compared to 56 percent pre-pandemic. But there was some progress in 4th grade, with the percent passing up 3 points.
The most-promising trajectory was in 7th grade English; the percent meeting expectations increased by 6 points, to 42 percent. In 2019, 48 percent scored that well on the test.
Across demographics, most groups made modest progress in Grade 3-8 English but declined significantly in Grade 10 English. Math scores were more stable. But with preexisting disparities and marginalized students suffering the worst pandemic setback, immense achievement gaps remain. About one-quarter to one-third of Black students, for example, met expectations on each test, compared to about half of white students.
State leaders outlined their ongoing efforts to recover from the pandemic, including the Literacy Launch spending on training, curriculum, and tutoring; expanding prekindergarten; and addressing chronic absenteeism.
The statewide rate of chronic absenteeism, or missing 18 days of school, was 18.8 percent last year, down about a point from 2023-24 but still elevated from the 13 percent chronic absenteeism rate pre-pandemic. Attendance problems surged coming out of the pandemic, with more than one-quarter of students missing that much school in 2021-22.
“The numbers are popular in the right direction, but there is still a lot of work to do,” Tutwiler said.
Many results in Massachusetts were similarly dismal. In the state’s largest districts, Boston, Springfield, and Worcester, all made modest progress in Grades 3-8 but lost ground in Grade 10.
The state also released new accountability determinations for schools and districts, taking into account MCAS data and other indicators and listed 61 schools as “Schools of Recognition,” based on growth or achievement. That group included some with high poverty rates such as Boston’s New Mission High School and Chelsea’s Edgar F. Hooks Elementary. The state also identified 29 districts and 280 schools as needing assistance or intervention.
Christopher Huffaker can be reached at christopher.huffaker@globe.com. Follow him @huffakingit. John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social. Marcela Rodrigues can be reached at marcela.rodrigues@globe.com.
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