The Houston Independent School District (HISD) showed signs of recovery in academic performance after the COVID-19 pandemic in the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), known as the “Nation’s Report Card.”
The NAEP chose 108 elementary schools to assess fourth-grade students and 44 middle schools for eighth-grade students. Of these schools, 30 belong to Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles’ New Education System (NES).
Scores in fourth-grade reading and math showed improvement; however, the school district still faces challenges compared to national averages and peer urban districts. Low-income and language barriers are critical in interpreting score data. Educational outcomes are widely known to be tied to students’ economic backgrounds and language proficiency.
“The headline is that we have stopped the decline in NAEP scores that has been occurring over the past several years, even the last decade,” Miles said. “We’ve turned the corner and our students are now moving in the right direction. We are rebounding from COVID learning loss at a faster rate than the state, national public districts and even other large city districts.”
How did Houston students do?
NAEP data show that in 2024, Houston fourth graders scored an average of 233 in math, up seven points from 2022, but still below the national average of 237.
With three achievement levels, basic, proficient and advanced, 71% of Houston fourth graders scored at or above the basic level in math in 2024, up from 63% in 2022. Of these students, only one out of three reached the proficient level and 7% were at the advanced level.
Fourth-grade reading scores rose three points to 206 when the national average was 214. Only 49% of the students performed at the basic level, while 23% reached proficiency and 7% reached an advanced level.
Despite HISD’s increases in 2024 scores in reading and math, they are still below pre-pandemic numbers and align with modest rebounds seen in other urban districts.
In eighth-grade math, 49% of Houston students met the basic benchmark, but only 20% were proficient compared to a national average of 27%, while 6% reached the advanced level.
In reading, too, 56% reached the basic level but 21% were proficient, with a national average of 29%. Only 2% reached the advanced level.
Thus, the gap between being on grade level, proficient and at advanced remains wide.
“In 2023, Miles was screaming from the mountaintop: HISD sucks. Well, now it’s two years farther away from the pandemic and there’s not much change,” said Ruth Kravetz, an advocate and the co-founder of the not-for-profit organization Community Voices for Public Education. “The pandemic has a huge impact on things. The nutshell is there’s nothing really screaming from the mountaintops that NAEP scores are so awesome.”
Causes for disparities: income and language barriers
The 2022 and 2024 NAEP data also reveal that Houston’s large student population, who have higher economic and linguistic needs, play a role in the academic outcomes.
For instance, 66% of Houston’s fourth-grade students came from low-SES (socioeconomic status) and 82% from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Moreover, 24% of Houston’s fourth graders are English learners, significantly higher than the national average.
For eighth-graders, 69% belonged to low-SES and 79% to economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
Long-term trends and post-COVID recovery
The picture becomes clearer when compared to pre-pandemic scores in 2019. Houston’s scores have yet to return to the 2019 levels.
Houston fourth-graders improved their math scores compared to 2022. While the math score is closer to pre-pandemic levels, the reading score exceeded it by two points. Similarly, eighth-grade math scores in 2024 (264) were identical to 2022 but still trailed the 2019 benchmark of 279.
This suggests that while 2024 marks a rebound year, the district has not yet fully recovered from the academic setbacks of COVID-19. The learning loss from remote instruction and other disruptions continues to have a lasting impact.
Miles, however, touted the district’s success in scores among students of color and students with disabilities.
“Our Black students, for example, reversed the declining trend and gained eight score points,” Miles said.
Funding and spending context
Financially, HISD operates with less funding than many of its urban peers. In 2022, the district spent $10,394 per student, compared to $13,841 for the average large urban district. Compared to Houston, cities like Boston spent $27,793 and Atlanta spent $17,289 per student that year.
The ability to hire and retain qualified teachers, offer tutoring for low-income students and expand access to early childhood education are tied to available resources for school districts.
Without closing the funding gap, Houston risks maintaining the status quo: Modest academic gains for some and ongoing disparities for others. HB 2, a bill that aims to increase public school funding by almost $8 billion for per-student funding and teacher salaries, was signed into law by Governor Abbott.
As school vouchers await implementation next year, the NAEP offers a sobering reminder: progress is possible, but without consistent support and attention to equity, Houston’s students may still be left behind.
Peggy G. Carr, who served as the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education, and was responsible for administering NAEP, expressed concern over mass layoffs and funding disruptions that began with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in February.
“The statute requires that we collect data and disaggregate by race, ethnicity, gender, public-private schools, free and reduced-price lunch,” Carr told the Defender. “It would have to be an act of Congress for us to stop collecting data and reporting it that way…Quite frankly, you do not have a representative sample unless you disaggregate the data in that way. We would not be able to make inferences from a sample to a population if, in fact, we do not collect subgroups that represent an entire population in the sample.”
