On July 2, 2026, ADVANCE published an article entitled
America's High Achievers Are Stuck. Author Brandon Wright reported on the latest findings from NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Though there is some encouraging news from the
NAEP Report – the scores for nine-year olds in both reading and math increased four points (considered a meaningful gain) between 2022 and 2025 – the scores for thirteen year olds showed no significant change during the time period between 2023 and 2025.
This is good news in general for the nine-year cohort, with the gains concentrated in lower-performing (10th and 25th percentile) students. However,…the news for advanced mathematical learners was not as encouraging. While the gap between lower performing students and higher performing students closed, this was due to the stagnation in performance gain by higher performing students. Though the scores for the top students declined only slightly between 2020 and 2022, they showed no statistically significant changes between 2022 and 2025. For those of us in gifted education, these findings are alarming. All students should be making progress.
For thirteen-year-olds, the story is even less encouraging for all students. Their scores in both reading and math were statistically unchanged from 2023 and remained below pre-pandemic levels. High end scores (90th percentile) fell three to four points in reading and six to eight points in math between 2020 and 2023. Significantly, there was also no improvement in these scores in 2025. They were performing significantly worse than their pre-pandemic peers.
As educators, it is important to remember that each cohort of students experienced the pandemic at different points in their educational experience which may or may not account for the data. Other factors may be at play. What does stand out, at least for me, is that the data warrants sustained watching, and that we must be ever vigilant in providing curriculum and experiences that continue to stretch our high-end learners in both reading and math.
Here are some ideas to consider when challenging our gifted readers:
- Do not impose arbitrary limits on what level materials students can read.
- Choose materials that encourage advanced vocabulary, concept development, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of text, even with our youngest readers.
- Celebrate deep discussions. Recognize students who are inquisitive and perceptive, and stretch their thinking. Ask questions that require them to justify their thinking. Activate their imaginations with "what if" questions. Teach them to respectfully question the author, the text, and other thinkers.
- Encourage students to continue reading for pleasure (especially after elementary school, when other activities can take precedence).
- Support clubs/activities that celebrate readers and reading, e.g., Battle of the Books.
- Provide parents/caregivers with information and ideas to challenge their student/s.
And here are some ideas to consider when challenging our gifted math students:
- Support mathematical curiosity; celebrate multiple ways to solve problems; math is so much more than learning your facts.
- Recognize and support learners who struggle with math anxiety and perfection.
- Specifically, teach math problem solving strategies such as visualizing, making a list, drawing a picture, guessing and testing, making a graph or table, working backwards, asking "how is this like/unlike something I already know?", acting it out, looking for patterns, simplifying, or making a model.
- Allow early entrance at any level to higher math content, when appropriate.
- Consider
automatically enrolling high performing/high scoring students into higher level mathematical courses/experiences.
- Provide parents/caregivers with information and ideas to challenge their student/s.
I am sure that many of you have additional outstanding suggestions to continue to grow talent in our students. It is often said that "a mind is a terrible thing to waste" and this is true for many students. I look forward to hearing from you; together we grow.
- Jackie Drummer, Past President and Current Board Advisor to WATG
Thank you to Esther Vazquez of the Appleton School District for the translation of this article for our Spanish-speaking educators and families.
