I'm Virginia Allen, and I'm Mary Margaret Olehann, and this is the Daily Signals Top

News for Monday, October 24th.

Here's today's headlines.

The numbers are in, America's math and reading scores are down.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress is often called the nation's report card,

and this year's assessment is the first one to be completed since before the pandemic

in 2019.

This is not a report card that a child would be proud to show their parent.

The National Report Card shows that the average math score for an eighth grader fell by

eight points from 2019 to 2022.

This is the greatest decline in the math score in three decades.

Nineteen scores for fourth graders fell to the lowest level they have been since 1990.

Experts say close schools and remote learning during COVID-19 aren't a blame for the

drastic decline in math and reading scores.

Lindsay Burke is the Director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for Education Policy.

She says the decline in test scores are likely the result of multiple factors, including

school closures during COVID-19, and special interest groups preoccupation with radical

gender ideology and critical race theory during the pandemic.

Burke says that while public schools saw sharp decline in math and reading scores, data

from Catholic schools shows their students have maintained stable educational scores.

According to Burke's report on the matter, Catholic schools sought no decline in fourth grade

math, while public school students lost five points.

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